Resolution
by waffleman1314
Summary: A few months after their Hawaiian vacation, Perry Flynn and the rest of the gang are back for more adventures in book six. With all of the twists and turns in his zany life, it all comes down to one final resolution that will change everything. Sequel to Complication.
1. Family in the Good Times

**Happy New Year, guys! Book six is here! Enjoy! -AJ ThaPlatypus**

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Perry

Focus was painted across his face. Intense focus. Sweat was pouring down the sides of his face. His brow was furrowed as low as it could go. His teeth were clenched so tight that his enamel was trading paint. He turned his head to look at his opponent and let out a growl. Nodding his head, he let him know that he was ready for this. He was completely focused now. All he had to do was wait for the signal.

"Give it up, you'll never beat me!"

"Oh, is that so? Well, set the game to intense mode!"

"You're so on!"

Perry pressed the start button on his Wii remote to start the game. It was the newest edition of 'Let's All Dance Until We're Sick: The Video Game,' and he and Doof were tied for high score. Life had settled down again at the Flynn household, but that was to be expected from their pattern over the years of Perry's long life. Being fifteen years old, he should have been senile for a platypus, but he was still quite youthful and rather childish. In his own ways.

"Watch this one, Doofy!" Perry exclaimed. He threw his body on the mat and started to do a very complex-looking version of the coffee grinder. Doof, who was not impressed, started to Gangnam Style dance in a circle. "Dude, that move is getting way too cliché!"

"Yeah, but we both know you just can't work it like me!" Doof bragged, breaking out into a disco.

"Psy could so kick your butt at this," Perry smirked.

"I don't see him pulling this off," Doof point out, pulling off some high kicks.

"Check this," Perry challenged. He held himself up with both hands and started to spin himself in circles rapidly. Feeling as if Perry had the upper hand, Doof started to do the Russian roulette.

"You know I should really learn something Drusselstinian," Doof thought aloud. "What do you think, Perry?"

"I think I'm winning," Perry laughed. Cheers erupted from behind them. Perry's thirty-five kids and three grandkids were egging them on. Xhirxhti, his Kyea mate, was simply sitting on the couch and shaking her head. Isabella walked in with her kids Danielle (Dani for short), Devin, and Jacob. Their dad, Phineas, who was also Perry's 'brother' and human, had been missing for about eight months. He'd been gone ever since their Hawaiian vacation. Everyone there at the moment had been except for Jacob, Perry's daughter Jamie's third child, Omega, and the youngest set of twins that Perry and Xhirxhti had.

"What?!" Doof looked up for a small moment, just long enough for Dillon, one of Perry's sons, to toss a rather hard block of cheese at the back of his head and knock him over. "Hey!"

"Yes! I win!" Perry exclaimed, throwing both of his fists into the air. He'd forgotten that he was using them for support and ended up landing flat on his face. Unfazed, he jumped right back up and continued to boast in his victory. Yes, he enjoyed having his kids fawn over him.

"Bravo, Daddy!" Jamie smiled at him and gave him a thumbs' up.

"Thanks, baby girl," Perry winked at her. Jamie just laughed. He worked his way through the mob of kids and headed off for the kitchen. Xhirxhti jumped off of the couch and followed him, holding the small twins in her arms.

"Could you give me a hand, baby?" she asked, laughing a little.

"Oh, of course," Perry smiled. He took the wriggling baby platypus in his arms and nuzzled her gently with his bill. "Aren't you so precious?"

She let out a small squeak and curled up into his chest. Smiling, Perry took his free hand and started to stroke his tiny daughter gently. He loved moments like these. Life truly was beautiful then. Chattering softly, he sat down and cradled her until she started to doze.

"You know it baffles me that such a fighter can be so sweet at times."

"Hello, Matthew," Perry rolled his eyes. The boy was a clone of Perry and Xhirxhti, and was never meant to meet the two. However, when he'd mated with Jamie, they'd had no choice but to meet. He had yellow fur, and black wherever Perry might be orange. His eyes were a bright cherry red. "Don't you have anyone else to make snide comments to?"

"Ah, but then I wouldn't get to spend so much time pestering you, now would I?" Matthew smirked, grabbing an apple off of the counter.

"Hmm, what a pleasure," Perry said, sucking his teeth.

"I will say," Omega said under his breath.

"When did you get in here?" Perry asked, turning around and noticing him next to the fridge. Omega had a queer personality and was quite the oddball. He was Jamie and Matthew's son, a result of Hidari incest that Doctor Svinski, the Earth's most acclaimed supapawologist, called an Anhtraiemgai. He was the first Anhtraiemgai to ever survive outside of its mother. His intelligence far surpassed that of even Doctor Svinski, but he refused to do anything with it.

"Have you ever considered that Newton was a fraud? It is highly possible that his theory of gravity is indeed false," Omega pondered aloud. "Based on the principles that Hej possesses, we can find that magma is a close relative of the same substance that diffuses our powers. It isn't gravity, then that holds the feet of those walking the Earth to it- it is Hej's powerful attraction."

"Omega, buddy, that's still gravity," Matthew sighed.

"Ah, but Father, your finite mind cannot fathom the non-existence of gravity, as that is what you have always been taught keeps your two webbed feet on the ground," Omega countered. "But, alas, I see that gravity is mankind's way of ignoring the powerful qualities of raw Hej and her sister, magma."

"I think you need a break," Matthew put his fingers to his temples and rubbed them vigorously. "You should try and do something fun that all of your aunts and uncles do. Play ball, dance- you know, what normal kids do."

"Matthew, let the kid think, for Heaven's sake," Perry waved at him. "He's got a brain, God gave it to him, let him use it."

"Dad, he's hurting the brain that God gave me," Matthew said under his breath.

"Then go somewhere else and stop stifling his gift," Perry said, as if it were the obvious solution.

"Perhaps I should let you two alone," Omega said airily. (Perry liked to note that Omega always talked as if he wasn't quite 'there'). "I can better expound my thoughts elsewhere. Where is Mother?"

With that being said, and everyone in the kitchen thoroughly baffled, Omega left just as silently as he had come. Matthew turned to Perry and thrust both arms out towards his son.

"What?" Perry blinked.

"Nobody understands him!" Matthew said, exasperated. "I don't even understand him and he came from my own-"

"Matthew, look, we've had this discussion before," Perry said calmly. "You don't have to understand him, he's your son and you need to support him. And thanks for that bold statement, were you about to say-"

"Perry, really?!" Xhirxhti exclaimed. She stood up and walked out. "Immature…"

"I was gonna say loins…" Perry mumbled.

"No, you were going to say sperm," Matthew said with a smug look on his face. "Because you and I both know that's where your head goes first thing. And don't say it doesn't because I'm a telepath- I know when you're lying."

"Oh yeah? And where does your head go?" Perry asked, sticking his tongue out.

"Who wants almond brittle?" Doof walked in and waved a box around excitedly. Both Perry and Matthew turned their heads slowly to stare at Doof. "What? Bad timing or something?"

"Ya think?" Matthew sighed.

"Actually, I'd like a piece," Perry grinned. He ran over to Doof and picked up a small piece. Placing a corner of it in his mouth, Perry nibbled at it, making sure it was something he'd actually want to continue eating. "Whoa! This is amazing!"

"Really? It's my own recipe!" Doof smiled.

"Yes! I love it, man, I love it!" Perry nodded. He gave Doof a large hug. They'd known each other for a long time. Even though now they knew each other as blood brothers, ever since Perry was six months old, they'd been nemeses until the day that they were revealed to be related. Their relationship was a complicated one, but it was a rare thing to see them hate one another.

"Oh, you ready to go?" Doof asked, jangling a set of keys in front of Perry's face. "You can drive, I'm not so good with the hover car."

"I'll say," Perry laughed. "And yes, yes I am. Monty and Vanessa are expecting us, aren't they?"

"Expecting more than just you guys," Matthew said, fake coughing.

"Matthew," Perry said with a hint of warning in his voice.

"Dad," Matthew returned smartly. Ignoring him, Perry walked past Doof and ran to get the hover car started. Doof caught up and hopped in next to him. Vanessa was Doof's daughter. Monty was the son of Perry's boss, Major Monogram. It was an interesting match, seeing as their fathers were sworn enemies, but their marriage was working out pretty well.

"I hope Vanessa's doing okay today," Doof said worriedly, tapping his fingers together.

"I bet she's fine," Perry reassured him. He started up the car and it lifted off of the ground. "Put your belt on."

"Right, right," Doof nodded, doing as he was told. Perry pressed his foot into the gas pedal and they shot off into the sky. He turned the wheel and steered them in the direction of the large purple building that used to be Doof's home and evil headquarters. Ever since he'd been living with Perry, though, he'd passed the place on to Monty and Vanessa.

It took all of five minutes to get over there, and not without some fuss from Doof. ("I think my belt is too tight!" "Perry the platypus, I think I swallowed a bug!" "Does this thing have seat warmers?" and so on). Perry parked the hover car on the terrace and they both hopped out. Unawares of what had been left on the terrace, they stepped forward and heard the haunting yet memorable voice of the Double Dutch Machine.

"_Volgen nu_!"

"Oh, crap…" Perry breathed. The arms of the machine started to instantly swing in the Double Dutch fashion, and Doof and Perry were caught in the middle of it trying to remember the steps.

"_One Dutch, two Dutch, queens of the Double Dutch! We jump better than you by that much!_"

"Make it stop!" Doof cried.

"Do I look like I can?" Perry replied, clapping his hands in time with the rope jumping.

"Only you…"

"_Watch our feet our moves are sweet, our Double Dutching can't be beat!_"

"Turn off!" Perry exclaimed, throwing a stray rock at one of the arms.

"_Touwtje springen, fast feud._"

"Wha-!" Doof shouted, tripping and falling into Perry. Before Perry could respond, both he and Doof were caught in the middle of the Double Dutch Machine and tied back to back. The door to the terrace rolled up like a garage door would and Vanessa stepped out laughing.

"Of all the sights to see on this bright Saturday morning," she giggled. She was wearing a navy blue long-sleeved tee and pajama pants. "Admit it, you two can't go five seconds without screwing something up."

"Okay, very funny Vanessa, can you get us out of here?" Doof smiled sheepishly.

"Sure, Dad," she laughed. She walked over to the Double Dutch Machine and started to untie them. "You know, Monty was supposed to get rid of this…"

"I'll take it back with me to our house," Doof suggested.

"Um…" Perry started, but Vanessa interrupted him.

"Yeah, that'd be great, Dad," she grinned. Pulling the last string, she stepped back as they fell out of the ropes and into a heap. "It's nice you came by today, Monty's out doing something for his dad and it's kinda lonely."

"Oh, so Monty's not here?" Perry asked.

"Nope," she sighed. "Just me."

"Well, pretty soon you won't be completely lonely when he's off doing business," Perry smiled. "You'll have the kids to take care of."

"Yeah," she shrugged, placing a hand on her large abdomen.

"Yikes, can no one get an easy break and have one child at a time nowadays," Doof let out a breath. "I can't imagine...twins."

"Well, it's…say, where's Perry?"

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**Next Chapter is...Phineas**

**Question: How was the start? Good? Bad? **

**Check out all of the other stories, we'd love to hear from you!**


	2. What Happened to Phineas

**Finally, chapter two! Haha. And now we get to see where Phineas went. -AJ **

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Phineas

Katmandu, Nepal was bustling with activity. Many people had come from afar to see the amazing fire-breathers that were performing in the streets. They called themselves the 'Bahadur Manchay Hru Fire Lae ko Cheen.' Everyone was captivated by their impressive tricks. Well, almost everyone.

A tall, thin, hooded figure walked slowly through the streets. His cloak was blacker than night, and was draped over his body like a blanket. One could only see the pointed tip of his nose and his rigid mouth. His hands remained in the pockets of his baggy black jeans, and his navy blue and white sneakers scuffed the ground. Few knew his true name in this country. Even fewer knew what he really was deep down inside. He stopped a moment and watched the fire-breathers for a second. His mind was torn between humor at the amateurs' child's play and a deep animosity for the one thing he now knew he couldn't fully control. The fire called to him like a child screaming out to be rescued. It knew that only certain people were naturally supposed to have control over them. So did he. Desire burned within him.

Such was the current state of Phineas Flynn. By birth, he was an Ankunin. His soul, his life, and his fate were tied to that dreadful title. Eclipse basically owned him from birth. It was like he had no choice in the matter. He'd joined her forces as one of her zealots, the Mytax, in order to keep his family out of her wrath. Now, after he'd accidentally unleashed the full potential of his partial Hej, Phineas was determined to stay away from Eiyu-tachi and Ankunin alike. This meant that he couldn't see his family or friends. Life was too complicated.

He pressed through the crowd and tried to get out of the way of those watching the display. There was one thing that needed to be done, and he was in the markets today to do just that. He was in dire need of food, and his funds were low. Just as he was about to exit the throng, a hand grabbed his shoulder. Spinning around, he saw from under his cloak an Indian man that looked slightly familiar.

"Excuse me, sir, do you speak English?" he asked.

"Yes," Phineas replied curtly. He went to turn around again, but the Hindi man stopped him by the shoulder a second time. "What?"

"I was going to ask you for directions and perhaps a chance to lodge," he laughed a little. "I am a doctor visiting from the United States, and, believe it or not, my entire savings was pick-pocketed."

"That's not hard to believe in Nepal," Phineas smirked. He now knew who this man was. It was Baljeet; his childhood friend. How could he have not noticed the unmistakable curly black hair, the nerdy dress, the perfect English without use of contractions, and the fact that he was a doctor? Easy. He hadn't seen Baljeet since before he'd married Isabella. "Come, follow me. I can obtain what I need to here, and then you can join me at my residence."

"Thank you, kind sir!" he exclaimed. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Doctor Baljeet Rai. I am originally from India, but I have lived in America for a long time."

"Yes, so it would seem," Phineas nodded. He continued to walk through the crowd with Baljeet following him at a close distance.

"What is your name, if you do not mind me asking?" Baljeet raised a curious eyebrow.

"You may call me…Akela," Phineas said quietly. "For I am truly alone in the world."

"Ah," Baljeet said. He pursed his lips and questioned this quietly to himself.

Phineas walked up to the nearest rice vendor and started to look over the products carefully. Baljeet watched him in earnest, curious to know what he was doing. He gave Baljeet a warning by putting an arm in front of him. Dealing with these vendors was not something to be curious about. He knew that from experience; Baljeet did not.

"Ah, kti deeta kilogram hru bhat Lae lagi ko Chaa?" Phineas asked, pointing to the rice.

"Twelve rup, hru Chaa. Malai twelve rupees, Akela, ChaiNa aru tin bartering Lae Din ko Cheen," the man replied.

"Relax, Harish Chaa!" Phineas laughed nervously. "Ma actually Yo amount timi require, yo samaya Chuu. Timi assume too much, sometime hru Chaa."

"Timi auta thief ra auta dishonest man, Akela Chaa," Harish grumbled. He poured two kilograms of rice into a bag and handed it to Phineas forcefully. Smirking, Phineas put the change in Harish's hand. "Ma every right trust Lae timi Chaina Chuu."

"Ra auta ramro den you, Lae too, Harish Chaan," Phineas raised his eyebrows and backed off slowly. He grabbed Baljeet by the hand and nodded. "Quick, we have to get to my place."

"Why, what is wrong?" Baljeet frowned.

"Let's just say I cheated him twelve rupees," Phineas chuckled. "The poor devil can't ever tell I've cheated him until after I've left with his produce."

"AKELA CHAA!" Harish screamed. He left his rice stand and started to run after Phineas.

"Do you trust me?" Phineas turned his head to Baljeet.

"Yes, but perhaps not too much," Baljeet bit his lip. "Why?"

"Because," Phineas said, picking Baljeet up and having him tossed about his back. "We have to run, and there's no way on Earth you'll be able to keep up with me, Baljeet."

"What?" Baljeet blinked, but before he had a chance to question him any further, Phineas broke out into a sprint. Now, not only could Phineas use his Hej to wield fire, but he was also able to enhance his speed. He was a well-known descendant of Quick Draw, an Ankunin with the power of speed turned immortal in order to be a Mytax. The fire had been passed down unknowingly by his mother's side of the family.

He ran in and out of the people, making sure to not knock anyone or anything over as he ran. Baljeet was screaming in shock. A smile danced across Phineas' lips. He always enjoyed a good run. It was invigorating. Once he was sure that Harish was far behind, he headed straight for his small home in the mountains and made excellent time, as usual. Dropping Baljeet at the door, he unlocked the house and ushered him inside quickly.

"Alright, what are you playing at?" Baljeet turned to him and pointed a finger. "The black cloak, the super speed- are you…are you a Mytax?"

"One could say that," Phineas narrowed his eyes, but Baljeet couldn't see that. He snapped his fingers and released a tiny flame on the tip of his fingers. It danced nervously in the darkness. Phineas bent down and put the tongue of fire to fresh logs that were waiting in the fireplace and watched as it began to consume the wood hungrily.

"That means you know that I am…" Baljeet trailed off.

"…an Eiyu-tachi," Phineas finished. He stepped towards Baljeet and folded his arms behind his back silently. "You don't have to trust me. I don't blame you if you don't. I don't even trust myself."

"Why do you strike me as familiar?" Baljeet whispered.

"Because, we grew up together," Phineas said flatly. He walked over to a small cabinet and set the rice inside. Pulling down some already prepared beef, he set it on a plate, found some utensils, and placed in on the table gently. "Are you hungry?"

"I suppose I am," Baljeet said nervously. Phineas offered him a chair. He took it, to be polite, but he still kept an eye on Phineas as he walked over to the fire and watched it silently. "When you say we grew up together, do you mean in India, or in America?"

"In Danville," Phineas said, still facing the fire.

"I don't recall knowing any Ankunin from Danville, Akela. Nor do I remember the name Akela at all from my childhood."

"Akela is just an alias, Baljeet," Phineas sighed. He lit another flame in his hand and caressed it like one would a baby's tiny head. "What can I do to prove to you who I am without simply saying it?"

"Well, I know your voice," Baljeet admitted. "It sounds like a distant friend. But, I remember your voice as more optimistic. To be quite frank, you remind me a of a less cheerful…"

"Who?" Phineas questioned. Baljeet's eyes widened in realization.

"You cannot be Phineas…" he said quietly. Sighing, Phineas turned around and took the sides of his hood in his hands. Ever so slowly, he pulled the hood back to reveal his face. His blue eyes were full of hurt. His red hair was mangled and drooping. The cheerful expression that Baljeet had once associated with the boy he'd grown up with was completely gone.

"But I am, Baljeet," Phineas replied. "I am indeed Phineas Matthew Flynn."

"Phineas!" Baljeet exclaimed. He ran over and hugged him excitedly. "They had told me that you were missing! But, I had no idea that you were…were a Mytax."

"Regrettably, I am," Phineas nodded. He paced in front of the fire and tried to resist the urge to cry. Unable to compose himself, he crumpled down in a heap on the floor beside the hearth, sobbing in his own misery. "Baljeet, I'm a monster! I killed them…all of them…"

"Killed who?" Baljeet asked softly.

"The people of Malam," Phineas cried. "Some of them weren't even part of the O.M.A.! Innocent people…I destroyed them with one accidental burst of adrenaline. I don't know how I did it…I just know now that I'm too dangerous for my own good."

"But, Phineas, you have to come back!" Baljeet insisted. "Your family needs you! What about your sons? And your daughter? And Perry?"

"What?!" Phineas spun around angrily. "Don't you dare ever mention the name of that platypus again! I caused his death, and it's destroyed the morale of his family. I don't wish to be burdened with that guilt."

"But Perry is not dead!" Baljeet exclaimed. Phineas' mouth dropped open.

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**Next Chapter is...Ferb (gasp! He's got a chapter again! :D)**

**Question: Does this clear some of the uncertainty of the end of Complication up? No? Yes?**

**Check out all of the other stories, we'd love to hear from you!**


	3. A Brother's Thoughts

**It's been five books since we've seen a Ferb chapter- well, folks, here it is! -AJ **

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Ferb

Grey. That was Ferb's day. It was grey. The sky above him was charcoal, the sidewalk beneath him concrete, his jeans were ash, his shirt was smoke, and his sneakers were grey on the verge of being black. Even his mood was grey; well, if one could put a mood to color, then it would be grey. Why? Well, not only was the weather dull and his clothing choice poor, but he was also gloomy because the one person who actually understood him was gone. In fact, he'd been gone for eight months now.

He was walking along the streets of Danville that afternoon with really no direction whatsoever. His fiancé, Gretchen, had agreed to let him have the afternoon to himself. It was a nice thing, that she understood his pain. She was the only one who really seemed to care nowadays anyways. But it was different without Phineas. So many, many years ago, they'd made a pact when their parents had first married. That pact said that they would make every summer count, when they were boys, and after that to their ends. Yet, this pact was broken, and not by death as it should have been, but by abandonment. No, Ferb would not have preferred death for his step brother. He just would have preferred that death break the pact, not the fact that Phineas had run off to God knows where to do Cressella knows what.

Ferb couldn't understand that. How could someone leave their family and not have any reason to? It just didn't seem logical. Phineas had been happy with his life; more than happy. Yet, he still disappeared from everyone's reach. Perhaps it was that an old suspicion had suddenly been found true. Benjimi Yu, a Shujinko from Japan, had told Isabella once that Phineas was possibly an Ankunin, the loyal partial-Hej wielding creatures that were bound to Eclipse's service for life. No one had wanted to believe the insistent Shujinko- they wanted to accept that Phineas was against evil deep down in his heart. But now Ferb was second-guessing these thoughts. Which could mean war for the two.

By birth, Ferb was an Eiyu-tachi, one of the species of with similar ability to the Ankunin, but more of an obligation to follow Cressella. The two sole differences; Ankunin were stronger and Eiyu-tachi had the choice to be free. Ferb had always enjoyed this freedom and used his powers to engage in his building hobbies up until the point at which he was needed in the service of Cressella. His job was to create weapons, an occupation that paid well and was only given to the best of Technopaths such as himself. Of course, as much as Ferb hated having to choose a side in a war that was none of his business, one great thing had come out of it; he'd been reunited with Gretchen, a girl who'd been in the same Fireside Girls troop as Isabella when they were younger. She was working as the advertisement crew to get the weapons Ferb was making sold. It was then that he knew she was the one for him. Nothing could have been more perfect. And it should have been perfect right now. His wedding was a year away from this very day.

But who wishes to have a wedding in which his best man cannot attend? Yes, Ferb had wanted Phineas as his best man. After all, to him, Phineas was both brother and best friend. No one could replace his step brother. Not even Perry, who had been desperate in his efforts to bring Ferb out of this depressed state. Phineas had made the silly mammal believe that he was truly a brother of his and Ferb's, but Ferb had never felt as if Perry was their brother. Perry had been, and always would be, a pet in Ferb's eyes. He was simply a pet with a humanlike character.

Little did it matter what anyone tried, though. Perry was not the only one to try and divert Ferb. Baljeet had tried before he'd left for some conference in Nepal. Buford had tried every musical number in the box, played every instrument he owned, and had even tortured the poor Baljeet before his flight to possibly get a slight smile from his British-American friend. Nothing had worked. Even Gretchen was beginning to give up on receiving a smile from Ferb ever again. Turning his mood around had really and truly been deemed impossible, and this was known throughout all of Danville and the Tri-State Area.

At this very moment, Ferb was wandering aimlessly while he waited for Perry to show up. He'd asked Perry to come talk to him about Phineas, as Perry was the closest person to him that he felt he could ask these questions about Phineas without judgment and with nearly accurate answers. Perry had been on Malam the day that Phineas had last been seen by anyone in their families. It had seemed a good idea. However, now Ferb was second-guessing the choice, as the platypus had returned from the island half-dead and unconscious. But it certainly wasn't in his best interests to ask one of the others that had been at the scene with them. They were all Perry's brothers.

Ferb stopped in his tracks as he saw the unmistakable teal fur under a fedora walking towards him from afar. Yes, Perry walked as if he had a mission, which he did, but it seemed that he was determined to get through to Ferb this time. He stopped in front of Ferb and stared up at the Eiyu-tachi.

"Why do you ask me, when you were there yourself?" Perry said flatly. By the look in the monotreme's eyes, Ferb knew that it would be hard-pressed to get anything from Perry until he'd proven that simple point was irrelevant to this discussion. The relationship between Perry and Ferb had never been as tight-knit as the one between Phineas and Perry. Whenever Phineas was paying him the least mind, Perry would go out of his way to drop hints that he would always be closer to Phineas than Ferb would, as he'd been in the family longer. This had put a mental block of sorts between the two as the years went on, and Ferb had begun to think that Perry was right. Nevertheless, he needed the platypus to be on his side now.

"Because," Ferb replied dryly. "I was on the ship before you, and Phineas was not there. Think me foolish all you can, but I was attending to the mission and I had no time to look back."

"I see," Perry narrowed his eyes. He readjusted his fedora in a nervous fashion, almost as if by the habit of his frequent anxiety. "You should have asked my brothers, you know. What I can tell you is not credible in the least."

"I understand this," Ferb licked his dry lips and knelt down to lock his eyes with Perry's. "But I don't trust your brothers."

"And why do you trust me?" Perry smirked sadly. "I don't even trust me."

"You're the closest to a family member that was there," Ferb said slowly. "Candace wasn't there, and Phineas isn't here to speak for himself. Sam, Darren, and Heinz are not my relatives. I don't even know them, really."

"You've never seen me as a brother," Perry remarked, throwing off Ferb's reasoning. He stared, unblinking, into the man's eyes and searched them for possible answers or clues. "In fact, you have always been at odds with me. Perhaps it is my fault, perhaps it is not; that doesn't matter. You and I don't see eye to. Never have. So it puzzles me that you want my help."

"Look, Eclipse mentioned that you have something unique about you!" Ferb blurted out. Realizing what he meant, Perry took a few steps back and looked away from the human, almost hurt. "Perry, you have the ability to see what others don't. You have to tell me what you've seen about Phineas, and don't tell me you haven't!"

"For a man of few words," Perry whispered, "you certainly can use them."

An awkward silence fell over them. Ferb knew he'd hit a soft area in Perry's otherwise iron conscience. The platypus had scarily realistic dreams that were almost accurate to the point at which people believed the platypus to be some sort of wielder of black magic. It was true that Perry claimed to be no seer, but he couldn't prove how he had received the dreams, and he never told anyone outside of a select few about them. Ferb only knew because he'd seen it happen before his own eyes. Perry would be sleeping, and then he'd begin to thrash about wildly, as if taken by a disturbed spirit, and he'd often scream or cry. His irises would flash white-hot, and his temperature would skyrocket. Some dreams would cause him to foam at the mouth like a rabid beast and others would have him draw blood. After someone would waken him, Perry's mind would be in utter shock, and he'd complain of an excruciating headache. And then he would lie awake for hours, shaking from a cold that didn't exist. Fear overcame his sense of reality. It was a dangerous gift, some said, but others considered it a curse of madness.

"I know you've seen him," Ferb furrowed his brow. "I can see it in your eyes."

"You mean to misuse the curse afflicted on my mind," Perry said quietly. "I understand. Phineas has asked me for my visions as well. But you are breaching all of the barriers of my inner thoughts and ongoing strife."

"Perry, you were born with this gift," Ferb said angrily, picking Perry up by the scruff of his neck and pulling him closer. "And gifts were not meant to be ignored. You are going to tell me what you saw of Phineas."

"As you wish," Perry nodded solemnly. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes. "I dreamt of Malam. There, Phineas stood in a black shrouded cape. He spoke to our enemies, and then one must have insulted him. His body became as a nova, incinerating the entirety of the island around him. Only the immortals survived the flames, but all who were left remained naked. The vision then skipped to a cold, dry, desolate place, and Phineas sat in the same cloak among mountains of snow. Then again, the scene changed to some small city, where he lived as a lone ranger…"

"Where is he?!" Ferb cried, clutching Perry even closer, hungry for an answer. Perry shook his head desperately.

"It's not that specific, Ferb," he swallowed. He tried his best to pull away, but the man's grip only got tighter. "Ferb, please…I don't know where he is…"

He let go of the whimpering platypus and stood up to his full height. Turning his back on Perry, he shoved his hands into his pockets and started to walk off, hurt that his plan hadn't worked to his advantage. Seeing that he'd only upset Ferb further, Perry scrambled up and ran to follow him. He called out to the man, hoping to grab his attention once more, but it seemed as if he wasn't going to listen.

"Ferb, wait!" Perry shouted. He sprinted over to him and stepped in his path in order to be noticed. "Will you listen to me just this once?"

"You have five seconds," Ferb pursed his lips and waited.

"The people looked…Indian," Perry swallowed. "Like Baljeet."

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Xhirxhti**

**Question: What in the Alterverse is Ferb going to do?**

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	4. Suspicions

**Get ready...get set...Xhirxhti! -AJ **

* * *

Xhirxhti

Xhirxhti readjusted her hold on the squirming baby platypus as she struggled to refill the bottle in her left hand. She had to admit, when she and Perry had first met, she would have never guessed that they'd be the parents of thirty-six energetic kids. Heck, if someone had told her she'd have had more than one Hidari child, she would have laughed at them and walked off without a care in the world. Now, she wouldn't be surprised if she was pregnant at that very moment. She even had suspicions that she was, since she'd been nauseous a lot lately. The baby in her arms gave an aggravated squeak and tried to wiggle out of her grasp.

"Ashley Flynn!" she sighed, tired of trying to fight with her daughter. She waved the bottle in front of her bill and waited for her to open her mouth. The instant she did, she sighed with relief on the success of finally getting her to drink the formula. One of her older children, who had a paler blue fur, walked in at the moment. "What do you need?"

"Whoa, no need to act brash, Mom," she put her hands up.

"I'm sorry, Norina," Xhirxhti grumbled. "You would be stressed, too, if you'd just given birth to twins."

"Oh," Norina frowned. She walked over and picked up Ashley's twin. "Well, I came to ask you a question…"

"If you say you're pregnant-"

"Mom! I'm not Jamie!" Norina exclaimed. Xhirxhti opened her mouth to answer, but she was cut off. "Look, I have a prospective mate, but under no circumstances am I pregnant."

"Thank Cressella," Xhirxhti let out her breath slowly. She then realized what Norina had said and turned to her daughter with a slightly confused expression on her face. "Did you say prospective mate?"

"That I did," Norina laughed. She let her younger sibling mindlessly fiddle with her fingers. "His name is Matthew Jake."

"Another Matthew, eh?" Xhirxhti raised her eyebrow. It was hard for her to simply understand the flirtatious nature embedded in her own offspring. The creatures of Earth were truly something different. She smiled to at least pretend she understood these feelings.

"So, you're okay with it?" Norina asked.

"Of course," Xhirxhti said lightly. She watched as the excited child set down her brother and skip off happily. It was true that she envied her children's ability to fathom emotions such as love, sorrow, and compassion. There were only two emotions Kyea such as herself truly understood; resentment and pure hatred.

This, of course, seemed sad to her lover. She didn't know what love really was, in fact, love was the most complicated thing in the world to her. Xhirxhti couldn't explain what drew her to Perry. All she knew was that this feeling in her gut simply could not live without him. Silently, she cursed the world she'd grown up in. It was unfair to teach the naïve Kyea-aedae that emotions were a forbidden concept. Still, she clung to some parts of Amoyxn society that could help her ever-growing family. She finished feeding Ashley and set her down in her crib.

"Meh loh dhix," she sang softly, to put the restless child to sleep. "Meh loh dhix; meh loh dhix dhn nietsnethceil, itiah, itiah…"

The baby closed her eyes and curled up into a tight ball of fur and tail. Xhirxhti laughed to herself; the lulling tune of the song deceived the poor child. It was a song of release, often sung by Kyea sentenced to death or prison. She touched two of her fingers to her mouth, twisted her hand out to the child, and then brought it back into her chest. That being done, she left the dozing child to invest in her own personal time. It seemed like a pointless time to those that didn't know what she did, but it was the most important time she had.

She grabbed a thick brown book off of a shelf and hid herself away in a closet. The book was more than six thousand years old, and it had been woven from the most delicate of anirav plants. On the front, in scripted Kyeaclae letters, it read 'Aidni.' That was the word for 'legacy.' Aidni was the oldest, most complicated book of spells that any Kyea could possess. Being royal by blood, it only made sense that she had one of the three remaining copies. It was fortunate for her to have it- Aidni could reveal almost any secret of the mind there was to reveal. But she was having trouble finding the one thing she needed to know most of all; what was wrong with her husband.

Oh, she had searched and searched. She'd been searching ever since her mother, Wynkyha Arven, had suggested it to her nearly three years ago, just before Jamie had given birth to her twins. At the time, she'd been afraid that Perry was an Ytixil, a creature of two personalities with one body. But, she was proven wrong when she'd used the tester spell on him. Something else was bothering his mind, and she wasn't sure if he was fully aware of this adversity or not.

The worry had come up when Perry had been sedated for trivial reasons. He should have remained asleep for the amount of time the sedation was intended to work for, but instead, he awoke quite abruptly and didn't act like himself. He couldn't discern familiar faces, he'd seemed insulted by offers to help him, and nothing but malice could be seen in his eyes, which had turned the color of freshly spilt blood. If not an Ytixil, what could he possibly be?

Xhirxhti flipped through the pages wildly, trying to look for a possible solution to her problem. Perhaps in the almost three years that she'd been skimming this book she would have accidentally missed something that was important. There were spells for testing one's Hej levels, spells for testing for Lesser Vampri, spells for truth, spells for turning disobedient children into angels, spells of human riddance, and even a spell for countering Dnalez, the death sentenced to Kyea such as herself that had committed Dnalizaws, the forbidden act of marrying a non-immortal. But nothing stood out to her that could help.

_Perhaps Phineas had been right about Multiple Personalities Disorder or Schizophrenia, _she sighed to herself. Of course, she felt obliged to look this up as well; she had to know the differences. Sneaking back out of the small closet, she located a small encyclopedia and returned to her page flipping. When she'd found the right entry, she paused and read it aloud.

"Multiple Personalities Disorder is a mental disorder characterized by at least two distinct and relatively enduring identities or dissociated personality states that alternately control a person's behavior, and is accompanied by memory impairment for important information not explained by ordinary forgetfulness. These symptoms are not accounted for by substance abuse, seizures, other medical conditions or imaginative play in children."

Frowning curiously, she held the page with her finger and flipped more until she found the second entry. She paused to read it aloud as well.

"Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all of the following features: emotional blunting, intellectual deterioration, social isolation, disorganized speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations."

Frustration filled her mind. This task of hers was no easy job; trying to see what made Perry sometimes react violently or even out of the ordinary. Both descriptions could fit him, to a degree. But at the same time it could still be neither. She had a strong feeling that this issue involving Perry's mind was somehow connected to his freakish dreams, but nothing was for certain. Unless she had someone like Svinski study him for months, there was no telling how she would ever narrow her search down.

She was brought out of her thoughts by an abrupt rapping on the closet door. Shoving both books under a few bags, she leapt up and swung the door open to see Perry staring back at her questioningly. Smiling, she batted her eyes and waited for him to speak first.

"Okay, to be honest, when Isabella said you'd be in the closet, I wasn't expecting you to actually be there," he laughed. Xhirxhti pulled herself out of it and gently closed the door behind herself. "What were you doing?"

"Oh, just…" Xhirxhti's sentence trailed off as she thought of a convincing lie. She fingered her silver lightning bolt pendant in her hands. Then it hit her. "I was asking her for help."

"In that case- does Exlairz have anything good to report?" Perry joked, knowing good and well that her Vampri ancestor wouldn't report anything considered to be good for their family. He cautiously reached for her pendant and took it between his fingers. "I have always been curious about how this works…"

"Yes, well, it-" Xhirxhti started, but she stopped in her tracks. What if he could help her? He might very well know the answer to the burning question she'd sought for an answer to all of this time. "Perry what's wrong with you?"

"Beg to differ?" Perry blinked. He clearly didn't understand the question.

"Ever since you returned from Jaken'na Kokoro, something has been unmistakably different about you," Xhirxhti sighed. She ran her fingers through some of her fur. "I saw you…saw you act like someone else."

"Oh…_that_," Perry swallowed. He scratched at the back of his head nervously. "I didn't want to worry you when I found out…"

"You mean to say you understand what's different?" she asked, her hopes escalating.

"I know what's different about me, yes," Perry nodded. He bit the lower part of his bill. "You've heard of Semi X, haven't you?"

"That assassin freak of Eclipse's?" Xhirxhti said, almost choking on her words. He couldn't possibly be dealing with that psychopath. No wonder he'd appeared to have gone mad- anyone who met Semi had every right to do so.

"We're the same," Perry frowned. He picked up a small mirror beside them.

"You're not Semi, Perry, I know you," Xhirxhti shook her head.

"That's just it, Xhirxhti," Perry's bill quivered. He'd used her full alias. Not good. He put the mirror up to his face. Semi's cold face was reflected back at him. Her heart leapt into her mouth. "I _am_ Semi. And _he_ is _me_."

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Jamie**

**Question: What just happened there?**

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	5. A Huge Mistake

**Do NOT be alarmed: this story is about to take a disturbing turn. If you can't take disturbing...you don't want to read this... -AJ **

* * *

Jamie

"Take this and beg my ancestors for my patience!"

Those were the words that Jamie Marie Flynn heard when her mother bolted past her and shoved her silver lightning bolt amulet into her hands. She stood there, quivering at the sheer anger of her mother. Unable to refuse her mother's command, Jamie placed the trinket around her neck and promptly walked outside. Once she found a secluded place (in the shed), she knelt down and caressed the metal in her hands like she would one of her children's own heads. Jamie hadn't the slightest clue what to do with the amulet; she just knew that it had the power to contact the High Vampri, Exlairz. But Jamie had no desire to talk to a High Vampri. Being a Lesser Vampri herself, she knew that it would only lead to conflict. So, there she sat, turning over the importance of this trinket to her mother in her head.

Jamie was considerably the most tragic of the Flynn's, and anyone you asked could tell you that. She'd survived two fatal pregnancies at this point in her life; one instance of Yugo, when she'd been pregnant with twin half-Muzukashii, and Anhtraiemgai, when she'd been pregnant with the son of her brother. He was a brother only in that he was cloned, but her mate had turned out to be of her own blood regardless. It had been a terrifyingly shocking moment when Doctor Svinski had told them about it.

She traced her fingers along the scars across her stomach. There were five separate scars running across her abdomen. Three were from when her son, Aiden, had pierced through her soft belly while she was still pregnant with him. The other two were from where she'd been cut open, at the hands of her own father, in an effort to save her life. Both C-sections had saved her life, and the lives of her three children. She was determined not to be a fool this time around; she was not going to have any more children. The risks were too high.

That sent her mind back to her mate, Matthew. Even if he was her brother, she still loved him as a mate. She wondered how he was doing right now; he'd been sent on an overnight mission, and she wouldn't be seeing him until tomorrow morning at the soonest. Sighing, she turned the amulet over and over in her hands, examining its smooth surface for no good reason at all.

"What am I still doing here?" she sighed. She stood up and pushed the door to the shed open. Night had fallen. Stars dotted the night sky like thousands of fireflies. The cold November air danced across Jamie's fur lightly. Shivering, she decided it was high time she went inside. She made a beeline for the door and quickly shut herself inside the warm house. Sighing contentedly, she stayed there, her back to the door for some time before going to find her bedroom.

Everything in the house was pitch black, save for her mother's amulet. It could be seen brighter than day even if the sun were to be extinguished. Of course, this did nothing to help Jamie navigate through the dark; she had her dad's bad eyesight when it came to darkness. As she walked along, she kept one hand on the wall, trying to feel her way through the house. She bumped into someone.

"I was so worried about you, baby!" came the hushed exclamation. It sounded like Matthew. She quickly gave him a hug.

"I'm fine," she whispered back. Without another word, he led her down the hall. It was true to say that Matthew's eyesight was much better than hers, as he was more Kyea than platypus by nature, but he still looked a lot like their father. She followed him along until they turned into a bedroom. "Did you go in the right room?"

"Of course I did," he chuckled. Tired, and not really considering other things at the moment, Jamie climbed into the bed and curled up, tucking her tail around herself comfortably. He quickly joined her and pulled her in close. "You're not too tired, are you?"

"What?" Jamie blinked. That was a weird way to ask for love.

"You're not too tired, right?" he repeated. He pulled her closer and started to nibble at her cheek a little. It wasn't something that Matthew normally did.

"What did you eat?" she giggled. His actions were tickling her cheeks. "What's got you in such a good mood?"

"You," he chattered. He reached his arms around her and locked his bill with hers. It somewhat shocked Jamie. This wasn't her normal nighttime Matthew. Something must have really excited him.

"Well, then," she laughed. "Just be careful."

He knew good and well what she meant. Jamie was not inclined to doing this again, seeing as there was the possibility of getting pregnant again. She was hesitant to let him do it, in her head. Why she couldn't refuse him the pleasure, she didn't know. Trying not to let her mental battle show through, she simply submitted. After all, he was the male. It wasn't her place to tell him no. At least, not in her mind it wasn't.

She returned his kiss and wrapped her thin arms around his neck. Obviously pleased with the cooperation, he wrapped his tail around her waist and held her close for a long time. It took everything in Jamie's power to not tell him to get off. Her job was not to refuse him her love, but to let him have it. Perhaps it was her animal instincts holding her there. Common sense told her something wasn't right, but she pushed it to the back of her mind. What was wrong with a little spousal love, after all?

Jamie soon forgot her thoughts and just embraced him. He stroked his finger down her back, which caused her to shudder from the tickling sensation. Something was definitely off about Matthew tonight. He wasn't acting like he usually did in these types of situations. Normally, he treated her more gently and was a lot less forward. Tonight he seemed rather aggressive. Yet again, common sense told Jamie that she needed to re-observe the situation, but she brushed the thought away once more.

The thought continued to bother her, though. With every passing minute, and well into the hour, the same recurring thought would swim to the front of her conscience and pluck at her mind, filing her with uncertain guilt. _Something is not right._ Eventually, it occurred to her that she should stop and take a step back. What if her suspicions were right? What if something really was wrong? Without warning, she pushed herself away and ended up falling off of the bed.

Alarmed, he ran over to the edge of the bed and gave her a questioning look. Jamie looked up at him and tried to place what was wrong, but in the light she could see neither his expression nor what he was doing. She sat up and stared hard at him for a moment.

"Are you okay?"

"Something isn't right," she said, coming out of the whisper they'd been using for the past hour or so. He sat back, even more shocked than when he'd seen her fall off of the bed.

"Agreed," he nodded. "You sound like Jamie."

"Matthew, aren't I supposed to sound like myself?" she sighed. He fell silent. She couldn't even hear his breathing he was so silent. His form disappeared from above her. Jamie stood up and walked shakily over to where she thought he might have gone. Then the lights flicked on. Turning her head towards the doorway, she gasped.

"J-Jamie?!"

"D-dad?!"

Perry ran over and cupped his hand over her mouth, realizing that she was most likely going to scream. Jamie tried her hardest to pull his hand away, but it was no use. There was no way her dad was about to let her notify anyone that this had happened. She cast him a scared, yet angry, look.

"If you tell a single person, I swear you'll be in so much trouble I won't have enough things to punish you with, do you hear me?!" he said through gritted teeth. "If this gets out it will never go down well with anyone! Do you hear me?!"

Jamie just stared at him; it was a terrified, disgusted, and utterly shocked stare that bored right down into his brown eyes. Unhappy with her lack of response, Perry pushed her up against the wall.

"I said, do you hear me, Jamie Marie Flynn," he growled. Jamie had never seen him so angry before. She nodded vigorously.

"Mm-hmm!" she hummed. Perry furrowed his brow and set his jaw a little. He seemed offended. His eyes flicked up and down, as if he was examining her scrupulously for something.

"Good," he nodded. He took a step back, with his hand still over her mouth. His expression looked pained. She pulled his hand away gently.

"Daddy, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," Jamie cried. He looked away from her. She stepped forward, but he put his hand up and held her back. "Daddy…"

"Jamie…just…just go back to your room…" he sighed.

"Daddy…" Jamie said softly.

"As long as there's no permanent consequence, we don't ever have to remember it," he said quietly to no one.

"Dad…"

"Jamie, didn't I tell you to get out!" he turned quickly and pointed at the door. "We're in enough of an issue as it is! If you wouldn't have worn that stupid necklace, this would have never happened!"

That's when it hit Jamie. She was wearing her mother's amulet still, and that was why he'd mistaken her for her mother. Swallowing hard, she pulled it off and shoved it into his chest. Positive that he'd gotten the message, she ran out of the room, ashamed of herself and full of guilt. Nothing could erase the moment he'd turned the lights on from her head.

When she got to her room, she slammed the door shut and leaned against it just as she had with the front door, only this time she was sobbing. Matthew wasn't home. Hadn't she known that? And now she'd done something beyond terrible. How could she tell Matthew? The realization hit her hard. She couldn't tell him. She'd sworn she wouldn't. Why? Simple- it wasn't believable that this was her fault. Everyone would instantly assume one thing and one thing only.

Her father had practically raped her.

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Perry**

**Question: Who just cussed out their computer because of that?**

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	6. Who is Semi Really?

**Okay, I get it; things are going downhill. Be mad if you want. That's how it goes. -AJ **

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Perry

How could he have been so stupid? Perry had never had any intentions to do such a horrid thing, and now that he was standing here full of regret and embarrassment, he'd wished that he would have been smarter. There was no easy way out of this. His head told him to tell no one. His heart screamed for him to be straight up honest. The shock and confusion ate at his brain, an acidic effect of the wretched thing he had just done. Angered with himself beyond measure, he slammed the fist with the necklace in it onto the vanity in front of him and stared hard at the trinket.

"You sseem upsset, Perry Flynn."

Perry's eyes shot upwards towards the mirror on the vanity and he stared daggers at the pest. Semi was smirking back at him, as if he'd found Perry's predicament amusing in some way. He could taste the bile in his mouth from having to deal with this psychotic other self. The assassin had somehow been implanted into Perry's being when Eclipse had trapped him at Jaken'na Kokoro some years ago, and it hadn't been until recently that Perry had made the connection that he and Semi were one and the same. But Semi didn't know that.

"What do _you_ want?" Perry said through his teeth. "You've already upset my wife and you aggravate the heck out of me, so your reasons for showing your face had better be good."

"I never have any _good_ reassonss to sshow," Semi laughed. "I ssimply enjoy sseeing you endure pain."

"Okay, but you'd feel like dirt, too, if you'd just taken advantage of your own daughter!" Perry snapped. "Of course, you wouldn't know, you don't have any kids."

"Ssomeone needss to get hiss factss sstraight," Semi huffed. "I have a sson. I have never met my sson, but I know for certain that he doess exisst."

"Say what now?!" Perry spluttered. Now was not the time to find out he'd cheated on his wife with a complete stranger. He got up onto the stool that went to the vanity and pressed his face into the mirror. "You have five seconds to tell me everything about this and I am _not_ joking."

"Perry Flynn thinkss that he hass to know everything about Ssemi," the reflection mused. His blood red eyes turned to lock themselves with Perry's brown eyes. Semi's eyes were a terrifying thing to look at. The pupils were practically nonexistent. One had to study his eyes in order to find them. Their color was vibrant, yet dark. Most people couldn't hold the gaze. But Perry could. He forced himself to.

"Listen, you!" Perry hissed, unblinking. "I know things you would kill Eclipse to know! Don't play this game with me! Tell me about this son!"

"Why musst I tell you?" Semi said solemnly. His eyes changed then, darkening even more. Something told Perry he'd hit a touchy subject for his other personality. He narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow, ready to do whatever he had to in order to convince Semi that he needed that information.

"Because," Perry said, looking for the right words. "I don't hate you and I am trying to prove I'm not that bad of a guy."

Semi squinted back at him, his eyes flicking up and down as if he was searching Perry for obvious motives. Perry stood his ground, his mood and expression unchanging. One could say he was sporting his poker face. The reflection took this as an insult and stood up taller. This threw Perry off guard. Semi usually would somewhat mirror his own actions.

"Thiss will teach you to meddle in the bussiness of Ssemi!" he shrieked. Before Perry could comprehend what was going on, Semi leapt through the mirror and knocked him onto his back. Shocked, Perry put up his hands to keep Semi's off of him.

"Y-you're not real!" he screamed. "You're me! We're one and the same! Semi, please, don't kill us!"

"Thiss provess that Ssemi iss not you!" Semi returned. "If Ssemi wass not real, could Ssemi do thiss?!"

Semi brought his right fist across Perry's cheek. The blow was harder than anything Perry could have knowingly dealt himself. The coppery taste of fresh blood filled Perry's mouth. It started to trickle out of the corner of his mouth slowly. A dull, throbbing pain was felt in his forehead, and Perry instantly knew that Semi had struck him a second time. Confused, Perry reached for a blunt object that he could knock Semi away with and ended up pulling out a gun instead. Both of them stopped for a second. That wasn't just any gun; it was one of _Semi's_ revolvers. And he'd pulled it from his own side.

"What the…" Perry breathed.

"Impossible…we cannot be the ssame…" Semi gasped. Perry looked up at his other self and nodded. He pointed the gun at Semi's temple and furrowed his brow. The assassin sat back in shock. "I am misstaken, Perry Flynn can be much like Ssemi. Go ahead, sshoot uss if you musst. You'll only kill uss both, if we are the ssame."

The revolver shook in Perry's outstretched hands. His index finger was centimeters away from the trigger. Was it true? If he killed Semi, would that equate to his own suicide? Sweat poured down his temples as he tried to decide on what to do. And then he remembered- when he'd first been aware that Semi existed, Semi had shot him. His eyes looked down at Semi's stomach to where his own scar was located. Sure enough, it was there on him as well.

"I won't kill you," Perry said, licking his bill nervously. "But I sure as heck can cause you pain!"

Perry tilted the gun's tip downwards and pulled the trigger. He'd probably woken everyone else in the house when the gunfire had gone off, but he was in too much pain to care. Semi let out a ghastly shriek, and then he leapt back through the mirror to be seen no more. Perry, on the other hand, was hunched over on the floor, clutching his stomach in his hand to try and stop the rush of blood flowing from the wound from spilling on the floor, but his efforts were in vain. He'd hit a major artery, and it was impossible for his hand alone to stanch the blood flow. Sticky, warm blood had now covered his fingertips and was splattering onto the floor below him.

Footsteps sounded in the stairwell, and the door was swung open by Xhirxhti. She ran into the room and went to grab Perry, but he held up his bloody hand and waved for her not to come closer. He knew that she still felt strong of the defiling of blood. Xhirxhti put a hand over her mouth.

"Aybil…" she whispered. "What have you done to yourself?"

"It wasn't…wasn't me…" Perry stammered, but then he noticed that the revolver was still on the floor. Semi had left it. "That tricky little dirt bag…"

"What?" she blinked.

"It was-was Semi!" Perry exclaimed, his pain showing through the strain in his voice. "He came at me, Xhirx, he touched me!"

"But if you're the same…how could he touch you?" she frowned. "That seems to be quite impossible."

"You've just got to believe me!" he said, exasperated. Xhirxhti held up her hand and waved for someone down the hall to come. Isabella showed up around the corner and jumped back when she saw me.

"Perry…Bartholomew…Flynn!" she shouted. "If you don't stop hurting yourself, you'll be dead sooner than you like!"

"I'm not trying, honest…I was just trying to kill him…" Perry whimpered.

"Kill who, derp-face, kill who?" Isabella said frustratedly. She started to rip up pieces of a white rag she was holding and tying them around Perry's gut. He fidgeted a little. "Stop moving, I'm trying to tie a tourniquet!"

"Semi…" Perry whispered.

"Let's be realistic, shall we?" Isabella raised her eyebrows at him. "Why would assassin Semi X be in our household?"

"I'm his assignment!" Perry threw his arms out. "This is not the first time he's tried to harm me! So, I thought I'd try to harm him back! And this," Perry pointed to his wound, "was the result!"

"His hormones appear to be all over the place right now…" Xhirxhti mumbled. Perry nearly choked on his own spit at hearing this.

"My…?" Perry said quietly. "Xhirx, baby, you must be out of your mind, no one, or nothing, has been exciting me in your absence, I mean, I wasn't _even_ trying to do anything of that sort-"

"Perry," Xhirxhti said calmly. "Why do _you_ have my amulet on the vanity?"

"I SWEAR IT WASN'T ME, NOTHING HAPPENED!" Perry yelled, leaping away from Isabella and pointing an accusatory finger in the direction of Jamie's bedroom. Xhirxhti stepped back and put her hands up.

"I just wanted to know if she put it there, or you'd taken it from her," she said, obviously taken aback by his sudden defensive front. "Unless, of course, there's something you perhaps would like to tell me?"

"T-tell you what?!" Perry stuttered. Irritated, Isabella shoved the rest of the self-made bandages into Xhirxhti's chest and ran back downstairs to answer the cry of her young son, who'd been awoken by Perry's yelling. Seeing that Isabella was not coming back, Xhirxhti gently closed the door and motioned for Perry to get in the bed. He reluctantly did as he was told, and she hopped up beside him and began to delicately wrap the bandages around his abdomen. "Th-this doesn't bother you?"

"It bothers me, yes, that I am touching your blood, but I'd rather be doused in your blood and disclaimed by my entire race than to watch you die from the loss thereof," she smiled lightly. "Now talk to me, what's got you all riled up?"

"P-pardon?" he said, almost choking again.

"You seem like something's bothering you," she said, looking up at him. He squirmed a bit, and she laughed. "Would you hold still?"

"Y-yeah, sorry," he chuckled. "And nothing's wrong except that Semi tried to kill me. I thought I could only _see_ him, you know. But that's a lie. We can interact. And I'm not sure if he's a figment of my imagination or not."

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**Next Chapter is...Phineas**

**Question: Is there going to be a positive to this story?**

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	7. Phineas at His Lowest

**Here goes again. -AJ **

* * *

Phineas

Baljeet watched the distraught Phineas from a distance. The man had changed much since he'd last seen him, that was certain. There seemed to be something hanging over him, like the clouds of Seattle. If he'd have been riding a horse at this moment, he'd be sitting deep in the saddle, like a sullen cowboy who'd been lost in the scorching hot desert for weeks without a drop of water. He didn't even make a sound as he stared into the fire he was holding in his palm. It reminded Baljeet of a lyric he'd once heard; _Somebody call the five-oh; we got a man down._

The state in which he'd found Phineas was almost too painful to watch. Just in the few days that he'd been staying with him, he'd noticed how truly depressed his friend had become. Every day was like torture to him. He involuntarily struggled with the desire to control fire in its greatest form, yet he was terrified of the possibility that he could kill someone. Phineas walked through this world with a metaphorical hood over his face as well as the one he wore on his physical person. That hood was guilt. One could see it in his blue eyes. They were bloodshot from sleepless nights. Bags hung under them. His brow was always knit as he looked out over people. Tears often welled up in his eyes for no apparent reason. His irises had lost their adventurous sparkle; that had been replaced by a ghastly pallor. One almost thought Phineas' eyes were a whitish-grey from a first glance. Alas, this was the state of the once-optimistic boy who could conquer anything.

Nights were practically unbearable. It killed any possible joy inside of Baljeet when he saw the man's head hit the pillow at nightfall. On most nights, it wasn't unusual to find Phineas sobbing unmercifully in his sleep. His head rest was normally covered with the damp presence of shed tears. The moaning he let loose would keep Baljeet up for hours, but he never once stirred to comfort him. Phineas didn't want his comfort. He'd told him that right after Baljeet had tried to console him the first time. Apparently Perry's survival wasn't enough to raise his spirits. The sad existence that was at this very moment simply staring into the fire in his palm seemed impossible to break. He was more stubborn than an ox, and despite the verbal help Baljeet tried to give, he refused to change his mind about himself.

Unblinking, he watched as Phineas stood up from his solemn corner and slowly began to pace the width of the room. His hands were clasped behind his back. He kept his face low, staring at the wooden floor in dismay. His sullen eyes were half-closed. The man appeared to be thinking, but what about? Baljeet studied the intense face of his friend. Phineas was making no obvious attempt to shroud his feelings. Still, Baljeet felt as if there was something he was leaving out of his explanations; something that could very well sway his beliefs or shake his doubts.

"Are you going to eat anything?" Baljeet asked calmly.

Phineas abruptly stopped his pacing and dropped his hands to his sides. Baljeet swallowed and waited for a reaction. Ever so quickly, Phineas turned to the left, lifted his hands, and let out an inferno so hot that Baljeet could feel his eyebrows being singed. He'd incinerated a large hole in the wall, and now snowflakes were dancing into the room in a frazzled manner. Staring out at the world, Phineas pulled his lip up to form a slight snarl. Unmoving, he replied silently.

"That is fine."

He walked stiffly over to the table and sat down. Baljeet passed him a bowl of chicken and rice that he'd made himself. Phineas roughly grabbed a spoon and started to slowly scoop the meal into his mouth. Frowning, Baljeet finished his own meal and proceeded to dump his dirty dishes into the kitchen's sole sink. His eyes never left his friend, though, in fear that Phineas might have another outburst and burn through another wall, or, much to Baljeet's fear, himself. He allowed himself an involuntary shiver and pulled his coat tighter around himself. Nepal was a cold place; even colder in these mountains. It was nestled snuggly into the Himalayas, the tallest, and arguably the coldest, mountains in the world. Oh, how he wished that Phineas wouldn't have blown a hole through the wall.

"Does the cold not bother you?" Baljeet said, trying to keep his teeth from chattering as he did so.

"What cold," Phineas murmured. He set the spoon down and walked away from the table once more. "What cold other than the cold that occupies my inner self? What cold…"

"Do you have to constantly speak in riddles?" Baljeet asked, annoyed with trying to figure the man out. He cast his eyes in the direction of his cloaked friend furiously. "You sit up here, in one of the most isolated places in the world, and you pity yourself to no end! When do you think you will return to life?! People who love you miss you something terrible! And now that I have found you, you bid me to not inform those mourning for you that you are alive?! To think that you still can _manage_to call yourself Phineas Flynn- ha! You are not the same person!"

"So you wish to insult me as a means to have me become what I once was?" he replied softly. One could hear the hurt in his voice.

"I did not mean to insult you, but I do mean to help you realize what you have done to yourself," Baljeet returned. "Don't you remember who you were? Anyone who heard your name would instantly associate it with the phrase, 'carpe diem.' You knew how to make anything and everything special. Now…look at yourself!"

"You make a valid argument," Phineas said, nodding his head. "But can you ever wipe away the guilt that I feel?"

"Phineas, you feel guilty for destroying evil!" Baljeet exclaimed. "Those O.M.A. members were _evil_. You have done a great service to Cressella and you saved the life of your metaphorical brother! Have you ever considered that?"

Silence fell between the two men. Neither spoke for the longest time. Phineas reflected on this for a good, long while. Baljeet waited for the response of his friend. He could sense a possible fight here. It was times like this that Baljeet truly detested; when he knew there was a reason to use his powers. He'd made it a point to never use them unless he had to. So far, he'd never had a need. Now, however, he wasn't entirely sure if he would need to or not. If Phineas attacked him, he'd have no choice; the man was stronger than him and less hesitant to use his Hej. Phineas' hands curled up into tight fists.

"Do not do anything you will regret," Baljeet warned him. He readied himself for a possible attack. His powers were odd, granted, they fit him just fine. All he had to do was think of an equation that would bend atoms to do a certain thing, and then transfer his Hej into the world to make it happen. It seemed like a foolish thing to do, as Baljeet could easily use logic to talk his way out of the situation if Phineas were a normal person. But he wasn't a normal person and neither was Baljeet.

"I already did," Phineas whispered. He turned around swiftly and aimed a stream of flames towards his friend. The intensity of the blast should have turned Baljeet into a pile of dust, but with quick thinking, he was able to hold up a wall of air that kept the fire away from his body. Phineas was emitting so much heat, though, that sweat started to pour down the bridge of Baljeet's nose. Unable to hold up his block any longer, Baljeet ducked into a sideways roll and fell out of the way of the blast. He waved his hands to the right, causing Phineas to stumble and fall to the side. Unfortunately, Phineas used his speed to his advantage and was up before his opponent was.

Creating two balls of fire in his palms, Phineas threw them over Baljeet's head and spoke to them in the strange fire tongue. It leapt to life and formed a circle around his friend, making sure there was no way he could escape. Baljeet would have been angry, but the man seemed more alive when he was using his powers. He put up a cold barrier of air around his body to ensure that he wouldn't overheat.

"Phineas, there is no point to fighting me!" Baljeet cried. "I know you're stronger than me, you use your powers more in one day than I have in a lifetime! Please, can you just talk to me like a normal human being?"

"Normal human being?!" Phineas spat. "How can you say we're normal?!"

"Well…we're not _ab_normal," he returned, unsure if he truly meant what he said.

"Look at our lives and you tell me who's _normal_," Phineas said curtly. He kept the stream of fire pouring from his hands constant. Baljeet had to try even harder to maintain his wall of air. "What _normal_ person has Hej? What _normal _person has a talking platypus as his metaphorical brother? What _normal_ person knows a Kyea royal? Oh, that's right- _no normal person does_."

"And what does it matter?" Baljeet replied weakly. He held his arms out as best he could, but he knew he'd have to pull the wall down eventually. "Normal or not, you are still a human. You are still loved by a family. You still have many, many friends that are heartbroken that they cannot find you. What about Ferb? Isabella? Your three children? Your parents? What about…about Perry?"

"They could all love me for who I was, but they could never love me for what I am!" Phineas shouted, tears spilling out of the sides of his eyes.

"You know…that is not…true…" Baljeet mumbled. His body began to shake, so he halted the flow of Hej and fell forward. Phineas instantly drew the fire back to himself and the room was then fireless.

"Oh no…no, no, not again!" Phineas sobbed. "Baljeet! Baljeet, answer me!"

"I…am simply tired…my friend…" Baljeet said slowly, between heavy breaths. "I do not possess the stamina that you have."

"Baljeet," Phineas said softly. He knelt down beside the man and looked him in the eyes. "You really believe they will take me back? Do you really believe they will let me return to the family?"

"More than anything in the world," Baljeet smiled.

Phineas stood up and walked over to the opposite side of the room. He stood there, as still as he had before, and stared into the fireplace. His cloak swayed about him a little bit from the wind entering the room where he'd broken the wall.

"I sure as daylight hope you're right," Phineas whispered.

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Ferb**

**Question: Will Phineas actually go through with this?**

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	8. An Unusual New Friend

**Special twist, if you can call it one. -AJ **

* * *

Ferb

Ferb had his hands shoved into his pockets as far as they could go. He was in line at the airport to catch his flight up to Baljeet's home in Sacramento. If Perry had seen people that looked like Baljeet in his dream, he meant one of two things: either Phineas was somewhere near Baljeet's family, or he was out in the middle of the Indian subcontinent. If Ferb had been meaner, he could have gotten Perry to reveal more, but he didn't feel like hassling with the platypus. Perry had an odd knack for never giving in that Ferb just couldn't put up with.

The line moved forward some more, and Ferb was then at the metal detector. He handed the man beside it his car keys and walked through. Nodding and handing him back his keys, the man gave Ferb a small smile. Ferb just nodded back and kept walking. He wasn't in the mood for smiles. Not now. Now was time for him to complete his mission, and the last thing he needed was distractions.

Once he'd gotten onto the plane, he quickly and quietly found his seat. It was a window seat, not that it really mattered which seat it was, but he noted it nonetheless. He gazed out of the window and willed the lengthiness of the trip to be over. Ferb just wanted to see Phineas again. To reunite with his stepbrother. To have what they used to have, oh so long ago. That was all he really wanted. He wanted that special brother's bond that he and Phineas used to share; the bond that had been sealed with a vow. His thoughts wandered off to the day that Ferb's dad had married Phineas' mom.

_"I was wondering, Ferb, if perhaps, since we're brothers now, and all, could we ask to share a bedroom? It'd be like a sleepover every night! We could wake up and start inventing instantly!"_

_ "That sounds good to me," Ferb agreed._

_ "This is gonna be awesome! Just imagine, we can make every day of every summer the best day ever!"_

_ "Yes, we can do anything we want, whenever we want."_

_ "We can do the impossible! Anything we could ever think up, we can build it, you know we can!"_

_ "You have a valid point, but we can't do everything, we're not perfect beings or anything."_

_ "Ah, don't be a downer, Ferb! You're an amazing builder! Anything and everything I come up with, you can build! We need to make a pact- a pact that says we will try everything in the best of our abilities to make summer the best every year, no matter what the cost!"_

_ "Until the end of high school?"_

_ "No! Until the end of our lives! We're brothers now; we stick together through thick and thin, though sickness and in pain, until death do us…"_

_ "Phineas, I know we're at a wedding, but, really?"_

_ "Sorry, Ferb, the moment got to me."_

_ "I understand your point though, there's really no need to go on. I understand that brothers are brothers until the end."_

Ferb laughed a little at the memory, even though it hurt to. It had felt like Phineas had lied to him or worse; turned his back on the pact they'd made as six year old boys. The promises had been broken, and Ferb wanted to know why. He'd never have assumed that day that he'd be sitting in an airplane approximately fifteen years later on his way to find out where in the world Phineas Flynn was. He was awoken from his thoughts by a poke to the shoulder.

"Excuse me, could you move your briefcase, sir?"

Looking up, Ferb saw a woman, perhaps in her late twenties or early thirties with mocha brown hair that was tied up in a sort of ponytail. The tie was closer to the end of her hair, though, and was more of a wrap than a tie. A few strands fell down in front of the bridge of her nose, serving as bangs. She was wearing a grey tee and navy blue jeans, with a black, sporty jacket and tall black boots to match. On her hands she wore fingerless black gloves, and her brown belt held a few unidentifiable tools.

"Of course," Ferb said flatly. He pulled the briefcase down and set it under his feet. She blinked and sat down next to him.

"You could put it up above us, eh?" she raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, I know," Ferb said quickly. He turned his head to look out of the window again. She was insistent on talking to him, though.

"You know, I haven't been this far down in the States before this," she said happily. "It's beauty, eh?"

"Not from the U.S., I take it," he noted.

"Ah, yes, and neither are you, I'm assuming?" she laughed. "That British accent of yours is a lot easier to recognize than my Canadian habit of saying 'eh' a lot, isn't it now?"

"Yes, so it would seem," Ferb said, rolling his eyes since she couldn't see them. "At least you didn't say Aussie."

"Hey, I'm no idiot, I can tell an Aussie from a Brit," she chuckled. He turned to look at her and caught her eyes twinkling, as if she were recalling something that had helped her establish that. "You know, I met an American that I thought for sure should have been an Aussie."

"Really now?" Ferb blinked.

"Yes, really!" she said excitedly. "We met on a small, erm, 'mission' in Canada. He was…well, if you'd believe me, he was a platypus. I know it sounds completely bizarre, eh?"

"Oh, no, actually," he smiled a little. "I know a family of platypuses. One used to be my brother's pet, but now he's considered more of a family member. It is very odd to have several small platypuses calling you 'Uncle,' though."

"Hmm, and here I was thinking you'd never believe me," she giggled. Ferb laughed as well.

"Funny coincidence, I remember said platypus saying he'd been on a wild mission in Canada before," Ferb sighed. She froze and gave him a questioning look. "Believe it or not, this platypus is a secret agent."

"Hold the phone, what's his name?" she asked suddenly. "Or, rather, what's his codename?"

"What, Perry?" Ferb blinked. "I think they call him Agent P or something simple like that. Works for the…the…"

"O.W.C.A.," she finished for him.

"How did you know?" he said, sitting back a little. She reached inside of her jacket and pulled out a shiny badge.

"I'm part of the Canadian branch," she said, with a stark expression of realization across her face. "Agent P and I worked together twelve years ago in an international team-up against two L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. members; Doctor Bannister, my habitual nemesis, and his nemesis-"

"Doctor Heinz Doofenshmirtz," Ferb chuckled. She sat back, appalled that he knew this. "Our life's been rather crazy. Heinz is Perry's quintuplet brother, strange as it is. Some kind of queer magic at play, I can't say more than that, as I'm sworn to secrecy about this, but it's rather complicated."

"I'll say," she raised her eyebrows in shock. "What's your name, then? Any friend or family member of P's certainly my friend as well."

"Ferb," he nodded. "Ferb Fletcher. And you are?"

"Lyla," she laughed. "Lyla Lolliberry. And what exactly is 'Ferb' short for?"

"You know…" Ferb started. He thought for a moment. "My dad always called me that, so I can't actually remember what my birth certificate says. I bet the only person alive that would know would be my brother; Phineas."

"Ah," Lyla smiled. "Your mom doesn't know?"

"Well, my mother died when I was six," Ferb explained. "And Phineas' mom wouldn't have known, either. Phineas, he just had a way of knowing things that were seemingly impossible to figure out. Phineas has always been linked to impossible. And that goes for his choice of pet, too; Perry is such an impossible character it's not even funny sometimes."

"Hmm, perhaps I'd have to stop by and see P again," Lyla chuckled. "He can't possibly be more stubborn than he was when I met him the second time. The silly fellow wanted nothing to do with me, eh? But he warmed up to me, I think."

"He's so stubborn, his kids are all Peter's, Pierre's, Piotrek's, Cephas', Petra's, and Pedro's," he rolled his eyes.

"I see what you did there, eh," she laughed.

"But, if you want to see him, he actually lives here in Danville," Ferb said coolly. He wrote down something on a slip of paper and handed it to Lyla. "Here's my brother's address; that's where you can find him. Although you won't find Phineas."

"Hmm, and why is that?" Lyla questioned.

"Phineas has gone missing," Ferb sighed. "He disappeared on a vacation about eight months ago. No one knows where he went, and I'm off to figure out where he went, if it's possible at all."

"You have no lead whatsoever?" Lyla frowned.

"My only lead is from Perry," he said, lowering his head. "I don't know if you know this about him, but he's got some weird knack for prediction. He dreams up the wildest things, and then sometime in the future, they come true, whether he sees it happen or not."

"Is that even possible?" she blinked.

"Many things are possible that you might not even believe," Ferb laughed a little. "There are so many things you need to know about our family that you might never know, Lyla."

"You're speaking in riddles," Lyla said. She shifted in her seat uneasily. "Don't you have a straightforward answer to all of this? Something you _can_ tell me?"

"Oh, there's plenty of things I _could_ tell you. I could, if you'd be willing to keep a secret, though," he said solemnly. She nodded vigorously. "Well, sit tight, then."

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Jamie**

**Question: How much will Ferb reveal to Lyla? **

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	9. A New Dilema

**Special twist, if you can call it one. -AJ **

* * *

Jamie

At this point, Jamie didn't know what to do. She had to pretty much face it, though; her dreams of peaceful, shameless life had been over since she'd overstepped the line with Chaz Whitehead, but this- this was further than shame itself. Jamie crushed the device in her hand and stormed outside of the bathroom. She knew what she should have done, yes. It would have been wise of her to talk things over with Matthew or her mother. Perhaps she should have even told her aunt. However, her mind was set on one thing and one thing only; she had to tell the one person she absolutely knew she could trust. Revan.

Now, Revan was not necessarily a blood relative, but he was just as much a family member to the Flynn's as Phineas, Ferb, or Candace. When they'd first met, a long, long time ago, he and Perry had bonded like brothers. He was a militaristic kind of fellow; he was a platypus that would tower over most toddlers, standing at about three feet high. His powers were stronger than an Eiyu-tachi's, as he was a Fuerzas creature from birth, but he preferred to call it, 'using the Force.' He was strict when he had to be, fatherly when he needed to be, and fun when it was appropriate. The most important thing to note about Revan was that he had a soft spot in his heart for Jamie, though. That was why Jamie could trust him.

As she passed through the living room, she ran into her mother, who, of course, wanted to know everything. She cringed a little when her mother grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her to face her. Still, she let out a small smile and waited for her mother to speak.

"Something seems to be bothering you," Xhirxhti said softly. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Mom, it's not polite to infiltrate feelings with your powers," Jamie said through her teeth. Xhirxhti frowned.

"I was going off of motherly instinct, actually," she said.

"Oh," Jamie blinked. "Well, I just…"

"Just what?" Xhirxhti tilted her head to the side a little. "Sweetie, what's bothering you? Do you need me to get your father?"

"No!" Jamie exclaimed, more harshly than she'd intended. Xhirxhti looked at her in a mixture of confusion and shock. "I mean…um…well, D-dad's not the person I need to talk to…he, um, he wouldn't understand…"

"Oh," Xhirxhti said, standing back a little. "Is it that time of the month for you…?"

"Mom!" Jamie whined. She put her palm to her forehead and shook her head lightly. "No, no, it's not that at _all_. Why would you just say that with all of the boys in the room, ugh!"

Not caring to stay in the room another minute, Jamie turned on her heels and walked right out of the front door. The chill of the November air hit her the instant she had gone outside, but she didn't bother to grab a coat. She was only walking two houses down, anyways. It wouldn't affect her too much. Shaking in the wind as she walked, she tried hard to ignore the icy wind and made her way over to Revan's house.

She walked right up onto the porch, made her way over to the door, and knocked vigorously on it. It took a few minutes for her to hear footsteps, and then a few more for her to hear them reach the front door. It swung open noiselessly to reveal Revan's surprised, but smiling face. That gave her a little bit of relief in itself.

"Jamie!" he exclaimed, scooping her up into a giant hug. She laughed a little. "What a pleasant surprise! Come on in, you must be freezing!"

"Thanks, Uncle Revan," she nodded. She walked into his house and waited by the door. He waved her into his living area and had her sit on the couch. The warmth started spreading over her cold body, although it wouldn't get far, with her naturally low body temperatures.

"Are you hungry?" Revan asked. She shook her head. He came and sat down next to her, smiling as widely as he could. "It's just so nice to see you. Any reports on Phineas?"

"Sadly, no," Jamie shook her head. "Uncle Revan, has anything ever happened to you that you feel guilty for, even if it's not entirely your fault?"

"Depends on what kind of guilt you're talking about," Revan said quickly. "I don't feel guilt for defending my family."

"No, nothing like, excusable, I guess you could say," Jamie persisted.

"I'm not following you, sweetie," he frowned. Jamie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was hard to tell even the most caring, understanding family member she had. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes as well as guilt inside of her chest. Revan noticed almost immediately and put a hand on her shoulder. "Jamie, what's wrong? What happened?"

"Uncle Revan," she said slowly, trying not to cry so that he could understand her properly. "I-I'm pregnant…"

"Isn't that a good thing, though?" Revan said quietly. He thought for a moment. "Granted, another Anhtraiemgai won't do your body any good, but you were fine with Omega once your father-"

"Don't talk about Dad!" Jamie shouted, again reacting more harshly than she'd intended to. She buried her face in her hands and started to sob. "It's _his_ baby, don't you see?! I don't want anything to do with him!"

"Jamie…what?" Revan asked. She pulled her hands away from her eyes and looked up at her metaphorical uncle, unable to respond. He pulled her into another hug and began to stroke her back gently. "How could this have happened? I don't understand…"

"I-it was a stupid accident," Jamie sobbed. "We were both stupid. I should have known good and well he wasn't Matthew, and he should have known his daughter from his own mate!"

"Have you told anyone else?" Revan questioned, still holding her closely. "Anyone other than me, that is?"

"No," Jamie shook her head. "Dad was adamant that I never speak of that night to him again. If he catches wind that I'm pregnant, I'm as good as dead. And if Matthew or Mom finds out…he's as good as dead."

"I'm sure that everything will blow over and it won't destroy your family, Jamie," Revan reassured her. "But you have to tell someone. Because eventually, if you don't miscarry, it will be obvious."

Jamie said nothing, but clutched her stomach in her hands. She knew deep down in her heart that he was right, but something in her gut was telling her that things were about to go terribly downhill. She simply nodded and did her best to calm down. It may not have been good that this had happened, but she wasn't about to let herself lose the baby over something as silly as serious emotional problems.

"That's it, breathe," Revan said softly. She could feel her pulse slowing back down to its normal rate. If only something could ease the frantic thoughts in her head. "Now you know what you have to do, don't you?"

"Y-yes, Uncle Revan," Jamie nodded. She pulled back away from him and looked him in the eyes. He smiled at her and sighed.

"I'm sure this will all straighten out, you'll see," he told her.

"I hope you're right," she said. She got up from the couch and walked over slowly to the door. As she reached for the handle, she paused and looked back at him. "What if it doesn't, though?"

"Then," Revan said, his face darkening a little. "Then you know where you can find help. I dare anyone to try and hurt you. They don't want to deal with me, I can promise you that."

Jamie nodded and waved good-bye. He waved back solemnly, and watched her as she left. She made her way back down to her house, purposely walking slow, even though the cold wind had gotten a little stronger than when she'd first left. Running her tongue along her teeth, she thought of the possible consequences. She knew for a fact that her dad couldn't hurt her intentionally; it wasn't in his willpower. However, she knew telling him, her mom, and Matthew would have very volatile results. The family might just tear itself to pieces or blow up in their faces. It was thin ice she was walking on here.

Taking another deep breath, Jamie opened the door to her own house and walked back into the living room. Everyone was still there, with the addition of her dad. She froze, and their eyes locked. Why hadn't she thought through her actions before? Her mom had probably told him about her outburst and now he was suspicious. He walked over quietly, grabbed her by the arm, and led her back into his bedroom. Turning around, he shut the door and narrowed his eyes to her.

"Okay, spill it, Jamie Marie Flynn," he said, narrowing his eyes and walking back over to her. "What did you _not_ tell your mother that's got her all upset?"

"I…" Jamie's eyes wandered to the closed door. "C-could you open that, I-I'd feel a little more comfortable if you did…"

"Jamie, I-" Perry started, but he froze. Jamie knew that she'd pretty much slapped him in the face. She'd meant to. Her dad worked his jaw a little and tried not to react in the wrong way. "How can I express to you that I'm sorry?"

"You can't," Jamie looked down. "Not now, at least."

"What do you mean by that?" he said sharply. She could hear the fear in his voice.

"What do you _think_?" Jamie said forcefully. Perry's face contorted into a hard look of guilt, embarrassment, pain, and most of all fear. "You know good and well what I meant, don't you?"

"I do," Perry replied, his voice cracking a little as he said it. His eyes slowly looked down at her stomach. She could honestly see the guilt, there was no denying it. "What have I done…?"

"Dad," Jamie said softly. She placed a hand on his arm and swallowed. Even though she didn't want to, she knew she had to do something to give him a small bit of solace. "I-I forgive you…will you forgive me?"

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Perry**

**Question: Will Perry forgive her?**

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	10. Madness Taking Over

**And Perry says... -AJ **

* * *

Perry

He just stood there, lost in the moment. Perry certainly hadn't expected her to ask him that. Not even in his wildest dreams would he have ever seen Jamie flat out forgive him for hurting her. It didn't seem natural. No, scratch that- forget natural; it seemed pretty much impossible. He shifted his feet a little and gave her a quick nod. She tilted her head at him.

"I do," he said quietly. For a moment, the two said nothing. Perry finally looked into her eyes and took a deep breath. "Have you told anyone else?"

"Revan knows…everything…" she said equally as silent. "I-I was scared you'd be…enraged."

"I know that both Matthew and your mother are going to want to kill me," Perry said gravely. He pulled his fedora off, smoothed his fur down on his head, and returned it to its place. "There's no getting out of this."

"No," Jamie shook her head. Again, they fell silent. "They'll know eventually, though. That's a given."

Perry sucked his teeth a little, knowing she was right. He had no good response for it. Of all the horrid things that had ever occurred to others because of himself, this was hurting him the most. It wasn't that he didn't feel immensely guilty for the people that Semi had murdered. It wasn't even that he didn't regret the stupid mistakes he'd made that harmed his friends. It was just that now he'd hurt someone he loved dearly, and they were both paying for it dearly.

"Be sure your sins will find you out…" he sighed. Jamie nodded to him sympathetically. He looked up at her and frowned. "Tell whoever you feel should know. Just…just give me some time to myself, please."

She nodded hastily and left. As soon as the door slammed shut behind her, Perry dropped to the floor on his knees and pulled down the brim of his fedora. He couldn't stanch the river of tears now flooding from his eyes. What had he done? Whatever happened to him, he would take, but the very idea of Jamie and the awful consequence he'd burdened her with rent his heart into shreds of guilt and shame. Yet, despite all of that, Jamie had _forgiven_ him. He couldn't wrap his mind around it.

"Hiss world fallss apart, and yet he sstill holdss onto the hope that he can fix it all, doessn't he?"

"What do you want, Semi?" Perry said, his sobs choking his words out. He looked up to see the assassin leaning on a chair not too far from where he was kneeling.

"You have ssomewhat convinced me," Semi said apathetically. The doppleganger stooped down, picked up the gun he'd left with Perry, and examined it with curiosity. "You and I, we are the ssame."

"Being," Perry emphasized. He brushed his tears away angrily. "We are the same _being_. We are not the same person. That, well, we will never be that."

"Yess, yess, Ssemi undersstandss," he nodded. He came over to Perry and knelt down on one knee. "But, there iss a tiny issue with thiss, no?"

"What issue?" Perry said, furrowing his brow. Semi poked the scar where Perry had shot him, and then touched the same scar on himself. "Yeah, and? Are you meaning to say you need us separate so that you can hurt me without hurting you? Is that it?"

"No, actually," Semi grinned. The expression on Perry's face hardened. He had a bad feeling that he knew where this was headed. "It meanss all I have to do to kill you, is to commit ssuicide."

"You're mad!" Perry shrieked.

"Perhapss," the assassin chuckled. "But my assignment iss to kill Perry Flynn. You are Perry Flynn. You and I are the ssame. Anything that happenss to you, happenss to me. If I die, you die. If you die, I die. Undersstand?"

"Yeah, and we have kids that love us!" Perry spat. Semi sat back. "Yeah, I said we! Don't forget you told me you had a son. What would happen if you died? Hmm?"

"My sson would…never meet me," Semi said, narrowing his eyes at Perry. He knew all too well that he'd lost that point.

"And thus, it would be quite selfish of you to die," Perry told him. "Out of respect for those you love. It seems, dear assassin, that we have met a stalemate. You want to meet your son, and I want to live to support my family. Either way, we both win or we both lose. You choose."

"Why musst it be I that choossess?" Semi asked.

"Because," Perry said, crossing his arms. "I have no plans to die today. I'm not about to commit suicide. You have to make that decision for yourself."

"Sselfissh jerk," Semi said harshly. Perry smirked. He stood up to leave, but before he could, Semi leapt up and tackled him.

"I didn't even threaten you!" Perry gasped. Semi grabbed him by the chest and slammed his body up against the wall. The plaster cracked a little. Instead of responding, he brought his fist across Perry's left cheek. Looking up at his attacker, Perry coughed a little and spit out the blood that was in his mouth. "I think you knocked out my tooth…"

Semi cocked his head a little. Perry spat a second time, this time to remove an uprooted tooth. The assassin's face suddenly contorted in pain, and he uppercut Perry in the stomach.

"Why have you done thiss to me?!" Semi shrieked. "You have curs-"

He was cut short by a sudden loss of breath. Both fell to the ground and began to gasp for air. Perry began to wonder if Semi would ever understand that causing pain to him would only cause the same pain to the assassin. Of course, that moment wasn't now. Semi pulled out a switchblade and made a swipe for Perry's throat. Perry rolled out of the way and hit the wall. Frustrated, Semi pulled the knife up and stabbed down at his prey. He missed, as Perry flipped over his own head and landed on his feet about a yard away from him.

"Don't you understand what you're doing?!" Perry shouted at him. "If you want to hurt me, you're only going to hurt yourself! Didn't the shot to the stomach prove that enough for you?"

"I musst...musst obey Masster…" Semi breathed. He stood to his feet and closed the switchblade. For a brief moment, Perry assumed that Semi had given up the fight. He turned to exit the bedroom a second time, only to find that Semi again had leapt up and tried to tackle him. Semi wrapped his arms around Perry's neck and his legs around his torso.

"Dude!" Perry exclaimed. "Give it up! You're not going to kill me!"

That only angered Semi even more. Perry grabbed at the assassin's wrists to try and pull them off, but Semi proved significantly stronger. The air in his lungs couldn't be released properly. He tried to inhale, but Semi was pressing in on his throat. Pain started to throb in his chest. Lightheadedness fuzzed his thoughts, and he had trouble trying to concentrate. Something clicked in the distance…or so he thought. Someone was yelling his name…or were they?  
"Perry! Perry what are you doing?!"

He worked his jaw to try and explain, but due to the lack of oxygen, he couldn't say anything. Then, suddenly, the constriction around his throat could no longer be felt. Relieved, he drew in an enormous breath of air and tried to make sense of the situation. He couldn't. The next thing he knew, he was on the floor, sprawled out like a reviving drunkard. He blinked his eyes and looked around.

"Where'd he go…?" Perry mumbled. His voice was raspy. He took another deep breath and decided that he needed to clear his head.

"Where did who go?" someone responded. It was a female voice. He looked around frantically and his eyes finally met the worried irises of his mate. She placed a hand on his cheek. "You're not making sense, baby."

"Semi…he was just…just trying to kill me…" Perry gasped. Xhirxhti stroked his face and shook her head.

"You were here alone, sweetie," she said softly. The realization hit him square in the chest. He was the only one who could see Semi. "That doesn't explain why you were choking yourself, though…"

"I…I wasn't…" Perry insisted. "It was Semi. He was trying to choke me. I-I saw him with my own two…two eyes…"

"Shh, slow down," Xhirxhti told him. He went to protest, but she put a finger up to his bill and shook her head. "You need to catch your breath, okay? You can't keep doing this to yourself, Perry. I don't understand this sudden obsession to prove that Semi can interact with you, but it's got to stop, okay? We'll find a way to cure you. I promise, okay?"

"You say that as if I'm sick with a disease," Perry groaned. Xhirxhti sighed and stared at him with hurt and an attempted sympathy. She held up a small, white object and shook her head.

"Did you knock your own tooth out?" she frowned. Perry felt around in his mouth and found the place where there was a tooth missing. The bleeding had stopped, but he could still taste the salty flavor of blood where it had been. He shook his head as well.

"Why don't you believe me?" he whimpered. She took one of his hands in hers and squeezed it tightly. "Come on, baby…I want to know."

"I just can't see how you can think that Semi did this to you when we see you doing it to yourself," she replied softly. "I want to believe you, but…"

"…it looks like I'm trying to commit suicide…doesn't it?" Perry blinked. Now he saw it. Semi didn't mean suicide in the terms that the moment no one was watching, Semi would run himself through or shoot himself. No, Semi was eviler than that. He wanted Perry to leave the world with a bad name, and certainly didn't care that he had an illegitimate son that deserved to see him just once.

"Yeah, that's about it, hun," Xhirxhti nodded.

Perry sighed. His new goal in life was to keep Semi from making him look like a selfish jerk. No one was going to believe him, either. Either way…Perry was doomed.

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**Next Chapter is...Phineas**

**Question: Will Xhirxhti ever believe him?**

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	11. The Man Under the Hood

**I know I JUST updated yesterday, but today I wrote a total of THREE new chapters for this story! Waffleman insisted I update. So, three chapters for you. It might just be tough, though. Resolution's plot is a slippery slope. -AJ **

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Phineas

Baljeet wasn't too thrilled when Phineas told him that he didn't have any identification whatsoever. This meant that they had to pretty much travel by foot until they got to the Pacific Ocean. It was no problem for Phineas, of course, with his ability to not only run at unnatural speeds, but also with his internal heat. Both of those were going to be an issue for the Indian. Nonetheless, Phineas insisted that they get started the next morning.

When Baljeet had gotten up, Phineas had already packed his few belongings and stored them up some food. He gave Baljeet some breakfast and had them start out at about three o'clock in the morning. Snow was falling swiftly from the sky, and the temperature was dropping steadily. Not enjoying the cold, wet snow on his shoes, Baljeet began to step in Phineas' footprints where the snow had melted in a path behind him. That was something the doctor would never understand. Hej. How did it make certain people react in certain ways? He'd probably never know.

"How do you even know which way to go?" Baljeet panted, after about three hours of trudging through mud behind his friend.

"The fire tells me," Phineas replied.

"Fire does not talk," he returned. Phineas turned an faced the man, his expression stoic and unrevealing. "Perhaps you have been isolated for too long and you assume that it does."

"I've talked to fire all of my life," Phineas said curtly. His eyes darkened a little.

"This isn't like Perry talking," Baljeet replied, licking his chapped lips. "I can hear Perry talking. The fire, I have not seen you talk to it nor have I seen it talk to anyone else."

"I don't expect you to understand," Phineas said pointedly. He turned again and continued to walk in the direction that he'd been going. "Fire only talks to those who can wield it through Hej. None besides us can comprehend its words. You, naturally, wouldn't be able to hear it and understand."

"You aren't making any sense," Baljeet sighed.

"Again, I never expected you to understand," Phineas said sharply. Baljeet shifted his feet in the muck and resumed walking. "Just as I don't understand how you ever expect us to get to California from the Asian continent."

"There was a slight land bridge that existed between the uppermost tip of Russia and the outermost edge of Alaska," Baljeet piped up, happy to move on from the topic of speaking to fire. "I believe that ice still covers this area. You have the speed to make it over without falling through it."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Phineas asked.

"What?" Baljeet stopped.

"Fire," Phineas said, putting emphasis on the 'i' so that his friend would understand the flaw in his plan. "I would melt the ice just as I melt this snow. And then we'd both be freezing in the Pacific. My whole body, subjected to cold, has the possibility to cool down."

"That is it, then!" Baljeet exclaimed.

"What is it?"

"I can cool you down with my powers, and then you can cart us across the ice bridge. It is ingenious, Phineas, you are truly still the most brilliant person I know. True, we're talking creatively, but that does not matter! You have found a way where most would have never even looked."

"I didn't realize I was solving the problem, even."

"Why is it that all of the sudden you doubt yourself?" Baljeet huffed. He wasn't letting Phineas off the hook this time. "When did all of this self-pity and negative outlook on life start?"

"And why should I tell you?" Phineas said, more harshly than he'd intended. Baljeet drew in a short breath and paused. "Surely you have a reason, or else you wouldn't constantly pester me about it."

"Phineas, I find you after a reported eight months of being missing, and I come to find out that you've killed people, stolen, lied to an entire nation about your identity, and are also a Mytax!" Baljeet told him. Phineas stopped in his tracks and stared off into the distance. "How did all of this come from the boy that never really wore a frown?"

"That requires a little backstory," he said slowly. He summoned a fire in his hand and held it between them to keep Baljeet heated. "Think back all the way to our first year at Invinci. I'd been kidnapped by Quick Draw, one of the other Mytax, who is also my ancestor. That's when I'd learned I was an Ankunin, you see."

He pulled back the sleeve of one of his arms and held the fire in one palm. In the orangey light, Baljeet could make out a long scar starting at the base of Phineas' wrist and ending at about the middle of his forearm. He gasped a little.

"This was their first attempt at trying to get me to become a Mytax," he continued. "They took hot iron spokes and pressed them into my wrists and ankles, trying to get me to submit. I refused; they'd been the group that had killed my biological father. Perry rescued me from that torture, but that certainly wasn't the last I'd heard of it.

"They left me alone until Perry's oldest daughter, Jamie, you know, was around six months pregnant for the first time. They kidnapped me for another questioning and wanted me to accept being an Ankunin, so they sent in famed assassin Semi X to try and convince me. We shared a secret, and he let me go. However, about a month later, Eclipse threatened my family. As long as I resisted becoming a Mytax, she'd do horrid things to my loved ones.

"I joined their forces with no other choice. Perry of course found out very quickly when he went to save Jamie from being forced into childbirth by Muzukashii Chaz Whitehead. I played off like I was undercover to help save his daughter. I couldn't tell him that I was working with the loathsome jerk that was trying to steal his unborn grandchildren. So I kept my allegiance to the Mytax a secret, figuring the less my family knew, the better. Unfortunately, that caused more problems than not.

"Eight months ago, perhaps a little more, we took a family vacation to Hawaii. Little did I realize that Eclipse providing planes for me would lead to an unforeseen attack against Perry. We ended up being dumped into the Pacific and swimming for Ostrov Geroyev. We lost Perry, and I went to save him. I didn't know that he'd been subject to torture by O.M.A. members, so I went in and did my best to get him out. It ended up a swap of us; Ferb, Darren, Sam, and Doof made it out with Perry, but they left me to suffer the wrath of Chaz, his torturer, and Quisling, Perry's firstborn gone Eclipsian soldier.

"My anger was horrid that day. I only meant to flare up a little in emphasis to keep them away from me. Instead, I released a burst of flames so powerful, the inferno disintegrated everyone and everything on the island that wasn't immortal or had the power to block my Hej outburst. The instant I'd finished it, I knew that I'd made a horrid mistake. I released another jet of flame, leapt into it, and willed the fire to take me somewhere else.

"That somewhere is here, Baljeet. It took me to Katmandu, Nepal, and I have been here ever since. I lied to the people when I heard about a high fine for Gonarish escapees and Mytax living here. It seems that Nepal's government knows about us, but I'm not sure why or how. I steal, Baljeet, because I have no money and I have no means of earning it. They have no plans to hire me; a mysterious stranger with scars. So, when you found me, I was in a rather rough spot. I was in a hole I'd been digging since we'd gone to Invinci."

Finishing his tale, Phineas remained locked to the spot in which he was standing. He was waiting, albeit, for a reaction from the man staring back at him. Baljeet made no movements, and he said nothing. It was just normal blinking and steady breathing. Licking his lips, Baljeet nodded to his friend and took a slight step forward. Unsure of how to take such a gesture, Phineas turned and waited as Baljeet walked up aside him.

"I do not blame you," Baljeet whispered into the wind.

Phineas stayed silent. Those were soft words. He'd expected much sharper ones, even from Baljeet. Where had the trenchant argument from before gone? Keeping his eyes glued to due east, Phineas watched the snowflakes dance dizzily to the ground in flirtatious abandon. Even if it had shocked him, Baljeet's answer certainly put his heavy heart at ease. He turned his head slightly and looked down.

"Thank you," he returned, ever so silently.

"For what?" Baljeet blinked.

"For not judging," Phineas breathed. He took in the cold, wintry air and felt his lungs fill up with the fresh air. Slowly, he released the breath, watching as the small cloud puffed out from his usually pursed lips. Phineas felt somewhat rejuvenated. It was as if getting his life regrets off of his shoulders had freed him, in a sense. Yes, he still felt guilty, but he no longer felt like the world's fingers were pointed directly at him. He picked up his feet and continued on, no longer concerned about what those around him thought. Now he had someone he could confide in; if only Ferb were here. Then he would have two someone's to share his life with. "How is my brother?"

"Ferb?" Baljeet asked. Phineas nodded. "He is…not very well. He is very hurt by your absence. Even though he is about to marry the love of his life, he is down and out; no one can shake him from this funk he is in."

"I hope my return does him good, then," Phineas said, the hope sounding legitimate this time.

"Yes, I hope so as well," Baljeet hummed. "I hope it also does your family well in all aspects. Especially Perry; he feels as if your avoidance of the family is his fault, to a point."

"If I can take that guilt away from him, then all the better," Phineas said happily. Baljeet felt warmer inside, but not because he was standing next to Phineas' extant flame. He finally felt like he'd won the man over. It was a mile marker in this trip, even if they hadn't exactly counted any true miles on their journey. He continued to walk alongside Phineas, and when he caught a glimpse of the hooded face, Baljeet could have sworn he'd seen a smile on Phineas' lips.

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**Next Chapter is...Ferb**

**Question: Is Phineas going to look at life differently now?**

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	12. Slip of the Tongue

**Now for Ferb's POV. This is a segway chapter; I had to write the following one to go with it. -AJ **

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Ferb

Baljeet hadn't gotten back from Nepal yet, and Mishti had been worried sick. This meant there were no answers for Ferb there. He had to travel all the way back to Danville and pester Perry for more possible hints. What was putting a kink in his plan was Lyla. He certainly hadn't expected her to tag along everywhere he went. Didn't she have a job or a family somewhere? His guess was yes, but it gave her the freedom to learn everything she could about the strange world surrounding Ferb's family. They arrived in Danville at about five o'clock in the morning, and were currently in Ferb's car driving towards his brother's house.

"So, how exactly does this Hej stuff work?" Lyla asked him from her place in his passenger seat.

"It's a bodily fluid," Ferb sighed. "And it's expelled like energy. Some people can only use it by bursts of adrenaline, some can think and cause it to happen, and others can simply move in a certain way and cause it to react. These properties can mix from person to person- I can think and move to cause mine to work."

"And you said you're a technopath?" she blinked.

"That's right," he nodded. "I can build things without moving. Of course, parts have to be within a mile radius of me, but I'm sure that's nothing too hard to comprehend."

"No, not at all," she laughed. "Just a little profound, eh?"

"I suppose you could say that," Ferb chuckled. He turned onto Maple Drive and started looking at the addresses. "We Eiyu-tachi only have Partial Hej. Those with Pure Hej are a lot more complicated than we are."

"Do you know anyone with Pure Hej?" she questioned, a desire for knowledge twinkling in her eyes.

"She lives at this house," he nodded, pulling into the driveway. He heard a slight thud in the front of the car. Shocked, he put the car in 'park,' Both Ferb and Lyla hopped out of the vehicle to see what he'd hit, only to find Perry frowning at them.

"How did I _not_ see that?" he muttered.

"P!" Lyla exclaimed. Upon hearing his alias, Perry looked straight at her and did a double take. Before he could respond, Lyla had scooped him up in her arms and was squeezing the life out of him. "It's so good to see you!"

"Nice to see you, too," he said, strain for air obvious in his voice. She set him down and smiled. "Thank you."

"No problem," she grinned.

"Ya'll can come inside," he said, waving them on. They followed him up to the front door. "Now, Ferb, you know why I'm warning her about this, so don't roll your eyes, please. You may want to brace yourself, Lyla."

"Why?" she said, cocking her head to one side.

"You'll know," Ferb chuckled. Perry opened the door, and no less than three seconds later, a smaller platypus came flying out and knocked him over.

"DAD'S HOME!" she squealed. Perry laughed as several more of his kids ran over to give him a homecoming embrace. Lyla's mouth dropped open slightly. Ferb tried his hardest not to laugh at her.

"Good grief, are they all his?" Lyla breathed.

"Yes, yes they are," Perry nodded. "Unless my brothers are here somewhere…"

"Wow, how many kids do you have, exactly?" she blinked. Perry made a face and started to count on his fingers.

"Thirty-five kids, three grandkids, four siblings, and then Phineas' family lives here, too," Perry smiled. Lyla shook her head. He turned to the closest platypus and frowned. "Where's your mom?"

"She's pestering Jamie," one laughed. "And Norina and her new boyfriend, Ben are pestering them."

"Well, let's go rescue them, shall we?" he grinned. He waved for Ferb and Lyla to follow him, and they weaved through the crowd of platypi without trouble. Most of them dissipated to go about their own business for a while. Perry took them into a bedroom in the upper level, where they found three female platypuses and an uninterested male party. Perry cleared his throat. "Ben, Norina- could you, um…?"

"Sure, Mister Flynn," Ben nodded. He ambled out. Norina gave Perry an annoyed look but did as he'd asked. She followed Ben out and shut the door behind herself.

"She's hiding something from me," Xhirxhti huffed, pointing an accusatory finger at Jamie. Jamie turned bright red. "I can tell by the guilt painted on her face. What is she hiding from me?"

"That's not important, Xhirx," Perry said pointedly. "We have guests."

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Ferb, did you find him?!"

"No, I didn't," Ferb sighed. He sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands. "Baljeet's gone missing as well, though. Mishti fears the worst, but I'm guessing his passport was stolen in Nepal."

"What has this world come to?" Xhirxhti moaned. She cast a curious glance at Lyla. "And who is this?"

"Agent Lyla Lolliberry," she smiled, putting out her hand. "Canadian O.W.C.A., and I'll say it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Xhirxhti Flynn," she replied. Perry leaned over to her and whispered something in her ear. Turning a slight shade of pink, Xhirxhti grasped Lyla's outstretched hand and shook it a little. "I'm Perry's mate."

"She's the Kyea- the one with the Pure Hej," Ferb noted. Perry gave Ferb a hard look, but said nothing.

"Really?" Lyla gasped. "Whoa, P, how'd you land her?"

"Hey, what was that supposed to mean?" Perry laughed. He wrapped one arm around Xhirxhti's waist and pulled her close to him. "What can I say, Lyla? There's no one I'd rather be with than her."

"Aw, baby, stop it," Xhirxhti giggled. She gave him a quick kiss and pointed a thumb at the door. "Ashley's crying, I'd better go see what's got her in a fuss."

"Alright," Perry chuckled. He watched her as she left. Once she was gone, he turned to Ferb and gave him a pointed look. "Alright, spill it. You're here for more dreams and 'answers,' aren't you?"

"Why else would I have come looking for you?" Ferb said sarcastically.

"Don't play with me," Perry said sharply. "I've got enough to deal with right now, did you or did you not come to get more dreams from me?"

At hearing her father say that he had a lot to deal with, Jamie contorted her face and clutched her stomach. Lyla frowned and looked at her. Jamie turned a deep shade of red and looked away.

"Yes, Perry, I came to see if you'd had any other dreams about Phineas," he sighed. "You're the only one that's given me answers. I've tried everyone and everything else. Nothing gave me better hints than you."

"I regret to inform you that I haven't had any other dreams pertaining to Phineas," Perry said slowly. "Like I said, I've had other things to deal with. My conscious is full of other things. My dreams of late have been particularly about Jamie and Semi."

Jamie again made a face and looked rather upset at the revelation. She turned and faced the wall, covering her face with her hands. Ferb sensed that something awful had happened to her.

"Is she okay?" he asked, pointing a finger at the platypus.

"Hormones," Perry answered quickly.

"Dad…it's not exactly that…it's…it's…" Jamie stammered. Perry turned and looked at her. She turned to face him as well and pressed two fingers to her abdomen. He frowned. She whispered another word to him. "Movement…"

"Perry, what's going on?" Ferb demanded. Perry went to answer, but Jamie ran over and shoved him out of the way a little. She looked up at her metaphorical uncle with hurt in her eyes and grabbed onto his hand.

"We're pregnant…" she came out and said. Perry's eyes got wide, not expecting her to say it like that. Ferb blinked, not sure he'd heard that right.

"You mean to say that you and Matthew are going to have another child?" he said, trying to make sense of the comment.

"No," Jamie said, her voice wavering. She looked back at her father and tried to fight the onslaught of tears. Perry glared down at his feet. Ferb then understood. That must have been what Xhirxhti was trying to get Jamie to tell her. Jamie pressed Ferb's hand to the bridge of her bill and choked on a sob.

"P, you did _what_?" Lyla gasped. Perry turned scarlet.

"This wasn't all me," he said curtly. Ferb went to object, but Jamie stopped him.

"He's not lying, we're both at fault," Jamie cried.

"How long ago did this happen?" Ferb frowned.

"About two months ago," Perry sighed, walking over to the wall and leaning up against it. "When you first decided to leave for Baljeet's home. No one save you two and Revan knows. Jamie's too scared to tell Matthew, and I'm terrified of Xhirx's reaction. As for Isabella…if she knows, I'll be kicked out of the house for certain."

"You might want to tell them," Ferb pointed out. "If she hasn't miscarried before it's obvious, then they'll end up knowing anyways."

"I understand that," Perry nodded. He started to pace in front of the bedroom door, trying to think. "The problem is that I look like the bad guy, and Jamie looks like the victim. No matter how I put it, I'm at the dangerous end of the stick. Is being honest going to help me in any way?"

"No, but wouldn't you rather be honest now as opposed to them finding out you lied?" Lyla said. "I know I'd be hurt if it happened to me and I was Xhirxhti."

"I suppose," Perry said, still looking at the floor. He stopped in front of the door and turned to face the other three. "So, what is it you want me to do? Just outright tell Xhirxhti that I got Jamie pregnant? Is that it?"

"Well that's one way to tell me."

Perry turned around to see that Xhirx had just walked in the door.

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**Next Chapter is...Jamie**

**Question: Well, isn't that an 'oh crap' moment? **

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	13. Rome Fell In a Day

**Here comes the fireworks. Forewarning: if you've got a soft spot for the Flynn's...I recommend you NOT throwing your laptop/harming the device you're reading this on. -AJ **

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Jamie

Jamie held her hands over her mouth and didn't know what to think or say. The look on her mom's face told her that this wasn't going well. Her dad just stood there, staring at his mate awkwardly. It felt like eternity before anything happened. Of course, the next thing that happened was Matthew walked in and saw us all having a staring contest.

"So…did ya'll all become statues?" he chuckled. Xhirxhti grabbed him by the shoulder and gave him a smart look.

"Matthew, did _you_ know that Jamie was pregnant?" she said, trying to hide the confusion and hurt she might have been feeling at that moment. Matthew's mouth dropped open and he turned to stare at her. He broke free of Xhirxhti's grasp and ran over to Jamie. Placing one hand on her stomach, he looked her in the eyes and silently asked her if it was true.

"I…I…Matthew, I'm sorry…" Jamie said, tearing up even more.

"Baby, it's not your fault, I just don't remember us…ya know…" he shrugged. This only upset Jamie even more.

"I know!" she exclaimed. "It's because it's not your baby!"

"Okay, so who do I have to kill?" Matthew frowned. His face contorted a little, trying to keep himself from reacting harshly. Jamie hid her face from him and continued to cry. "You're not answering my question. Who's the father?"

"Why don't you ask _your_ father?" Xhirxhti said, her voice sounding icy.

"Dad?" Matthew questioned. Perry cowered a little. "You know who the father is?"

"I…yes," Perry stammered.

"So…?" Matthew said expectantly. Jamie glanced up at her dad and let out an involuntary exclamation. Both men turned to look at her and she sniffled a little.

"It's Dad, okay!" she sobbed. Matthew's mouth dropped open again and he shot a venomous glare at Perry. "Dad's the father…"

"Perry Bartholomew Flynn, you have a heck of a lot of explaining to do and you've got about three seconds to do it," Xhirxhti said, her tone sounding offended. "When did it happen? No, even better- why?!"

"You took up my three seconds…" Perry breathed.

"Excuse me?" Xhirxhti said, furrowing her brow. "You have sex with my daughter, you get her pregnant, and then you tell me that you don't have time to explain how and when this happened? Or when you were planning to tell me?"

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa," Perry defended. "She's my daughter, too, and that was a fair statement- you took my three seconds up with stupid questions!"

"I beg your pardon?" Xhirxhti spat. "_Your_ daughter? Apparently you don't see her as enough of a daughter to leave her innocence alone!"

"What innocence?" Perry blinked.

"Hey!" Jamie frowned. "I _was_ innocent until you-"

"Don't you EVEN!" Matthew interjected. "You and that Chaz- c'mon, Jamie, we both know you lost your innocence the first time you got into the bed with him."

"I thought you were on my side about that?!" Jamie cried.

"Would you forget the whole Chaz affair?" Perry sighed.

"Wait, so now it was an affair?!" Jamie shot back. "Okay, that was just downright offensive."

"I still want to know how this happened!" Xhirxhti screamed.

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT, SHEESH!" Perry shouted. Ferb and Lyla, who'd been standing there the whole time, both slowly backed out of the room to avoid involving themselves in the argument. Xhirxhti worked her jaw around, trying to think of something to respond with. "I thought she was you, she thought I was Matthew. It's not that hard to understand, I hope."

"How could you mix us up?" Xhirxhti stressed. "We're not the same!"

"Yeah, that's very, very true," Perry said, raising his brow a little. This got him a hard slap to the cheek from Xhirxhti. "What, you want me to lie?"

"I…didn't…mean…_that_…way…" Xhirxhti said through her heavy breaths.

"Mom, how bad can I hurt him for this?" Matthew threw in. Perry backed up and pressed his body against the wall Xhirxhti had cornered him in. "I swear, Dad, if you EVER so much as touch her in a sexual way…"

"Please, Matthew, don't fight…" Jamie pleaded. She grabbed her mate by the arm and tried to pull him away from her parents. "Fighting isn't helping anything."

"Y-yeah, can't we just talk this out?" Perry swallowed.

"Talk it out, Perry Flynn?" Xhirxhti hissed. Jamie had never seen her mother so angry before in all of her life. "We've been mates for nine years, we've had thirty-five kids together, and you've never once even _looked_ at another female to my knowledge. Now I don't know whether to believe that this is the only incident or not."

"Mom!" Jamie exclaimed.

"Xhirx, baby, I have _never_ touched another female," Perry said, putting his hands up. Her eyes darted to Jamie and then looked back at him. "Okay, okay, I haven't touched anyone besides you two, and Jamie was a complete accident!"

"Why should I believe you?!" Xhirxhti cried. She paused for a moment and simply stared him in the eyes.

"Baby," Perry said softly. He reached a hand out to her, but she jerked away.

"Out," she said firmly.

"What?" Perry whispered. It appeared as if he were on the verge of tears now. "Xhirx, listen to me, please…"

"I SAID GET OUT!" she screamed back. Perry's breathing picked up a little, but he slowly backed towards the door.

"Okay, I'll give you a few," he said quietly.

"NOT OUT OF THE ROOM, YOU MORON, GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE!" she shouted. She pointed one finger at the door and fought to keep from breaking down right then and there. Tears were streaming down her face. Jamie looked at her father and started crying herself. She buried her face into Matthew's arm.

"If that's what makes you happy…" Perry said, choking on his own words. He turned and left the room. His footsteps down the stairs were slow and heavy. Seconds later, Jamie heard the front door slam shut. She looked up to see her mother looking directly at her. Xhirxhti walked over and embraced her. She stroked Jamie's back and started to sob.

"Why…?" Xhirxhti wept. "Why did he choose to hurt _you_?"

"Mom…" Jamie said silently.

"When did it happen?" her mother whispered.

"Two months ago," Jamie replied softly. Her mother sobbed even harder. Matthew came and shared in the embrace. He slipped his hand into Jamie's and squeezed it tightly. "You don't hate me, do you?"

"No!" her mother said quickly. "It's not your fault, sweetie, of course we don't hate you. We won't hold you accountable for what your father did to you."

"Mom's right," Matthew nodded. He touched his hand to Jamie's belly and gazed into her eyes. "We just have to protect you. And…and the baby. Don't worry so much, okay, baby?"

"I…I need a moment," Jamie drew in her breath. They both nodded and let her go. She left the room as swiftly as she could and headed straight out of the door. Running off of the porch, she saw her dad shuffling his feet in the direction of Revan's house. "Dad!"

Perry froze and turned around. Jamie jogged over to where he was and gave him a large hug. He cautiously put his arms around her as well and stroked her head. She pulled her head back a little and looked up at him. His eyes were full of tears and they were turning a little red.

"I…I don't understand," she cried. "Why did Mom…have to…have to send you out? Why did she make you leave?"

"Shh, shh," Perry said, rocking her in his arms a little. "Everything's gonna be okay, baby girl. Just give everyone some time to cool off, okay? You need to calm down."

They walked up to Revan's house together in silence. When they got there, Perry was the one to reach up and knock on the door. It took a few minutes, but Revan eventually opened the door and gasped, surprised to see them there and at the same time upset to see Jamie and Perry both crying.

"Come in, please," Revan told them. He waved them over on the couch. Perry had Jamie sit down next to him so that he could keep holding her for comfort.

"Thanks, man," Perry smiled a little.

"What happened?" Revan frowned. "Why is the little angel sobbing?"

"Matthew and Xhirx found out about the baby," Perry said softly. He rubbed her back and regarded her sympathetically. Revan sat down next to Jamie and gently stroked her shoulder.

"Was it bad?" Revan sighed. Perry nodded.

"I've been kicked out of the house for the moment…" he told him. "As for Jamie, I think they're trying to keep her away from me."

"That's p-precisely what they want," Jamie sniffled. She pressed a hand to her stomach and choked on another sob. The baby moved a little bit. It would have made her happy, under normal circumstances. There were, however, never any normal circumstances for Jamie's pregnancies.

"You're welcome to stay here until you're invited back in your own home, Perry," Revan offered.

"Thanks," Perry said. "I want to be able to see Jamie without her mother…ya know, pitching a fit or getting even angrier with me. Please don't tell Xhirx if Jamie's been over here with me, will you Revan?"

"I won't," Revan said slowly. "But, I do think it'd be wise of you to not cause any more problems between you and your mate. This could end badly."

"It has," Jamie cried. Her family had been broken to pieces. Bad was in the past.

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Perry**

**Question: If I haven't told ya'll yet, this story's plot is a series of unfortunate events...no pun intended. So, what could POSSIBLY get worse?**

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	14. Trying to Cope

**Hmm, no response. I expected something a little volatile. Well, here goes more. -AJ **

* * *

Perry

He'd been staying with Revan for a good, long time now. It was hard; Perry wouldn't deny that. The love of his life had practically shunned him. Now, here he was playing a game of cards with Revan, Jamie, and Zoe. It would have been an okay game of cards if Zoe wasn't such a cheater. How did she cheat at cards? Magic. That was how all of his kids had learned to cheat. She laid down her next play and sat back a little.

"Your turn, Jamie," she chirped. Jamie sat up a little and pulled a card out of her hand. She lazily tossed it at the table. Zoe gave her a sympathetic frown. "Tired, sis?"

"Zoe, you have no idea," Jamie shook her head. She leaned back again and rested her hands on her stomach. Perry had to admit, she was looking a lot better this pregnancy than she'd ever had before; at four months with the twins or Omega, she had looked rather dead. This time, she just looked tired. "Your turn, Dad."

"I have nothing to play," he sighed, drawing a card from the deck. "Yeah, still nothing. Nothing at all."

"Well, guess it's my turn," Revan hummed. He started to finger through his cards, working his play our more strategically than anyone else would have. Zoe took the moment to start a sidebar conversation.

"So, Jamie, do you have any names picked out?" she asked. She reached over and poked Jamie in the stomach playfully. Jamie gave her an annoyed look and brushed her hand away. "C'mon, Jame-ster. It's not like I'm hurting you, I'm just poking your baby bump."

"No, I don't have any names picked out," Jamie said, somewhat crossly. "Do you have any suggestions?"

"Actually, I do," Zoe smiled. Jamie groaned and rubbed her forehead with the hand that was free. "I was thinking Liam for a boy, since, you know, Australians have typically Anglican names-"

"We're not Australian, Zoe," Jamie interjected, but her sister kept rambling.

"-and Lexi for a girl, well, just because it's cute," Zoe grinned. "What'cha think?"

"I think it's your turn," Jamie mumbled. Revan laid down a card and for some reason said 'uno.' Zoe picked up her hand and grabbed a few cards. She laid them down and turned her head to Jamie, who moaned and threw down a random card.

"I sense that Jamie is tired of Bologna," Zoe frowned.

"Wait, Bologna?!" Perry exclaimed. "Aw, darn, I thought we were playing poker. I was trying to win Revan's cheese puffs."

"The cheese puffs are mine, mwa, ha, ha!" Revan grinned. "Wait…I thought we were playing Uno…"

"Dad, if we were playing poker, you'd be in your boxers right now," Jamie smirked.

"Hey, wait a minute, I don't play like that!" Perry chuckled.

"Yes, yes you do," Zoe inserted. "I've seen you, Uncle Doof, Uncle Darren, Uncle Sam, Uncle Revan, and Aunt Katrina. Doof's always the first to lose his fur, and then you just throw yours off like it's some kind of party."

"That's disturbing," Revan remarked. "And I've been the unlucky one to see if happen every single time."

"It's disturbing just thinking about it," Jamie remarked. She stood up and walked out of the room. "I'll be right back…"

"And there goes princess prego," Zoe shook her head.

"Don't make fun of your sister, Zoe, that's just not nice," Perry told her. Zoe rolled her eyes and sat back against the couch. "You think I'm kidding? She's going through trauma."

"Dad, no offense, but she's _always_ going through trauma," Zoe replied. "Besides, I'm not making fun of her; I'm reveling in the fact that my sister is having a baby. Granted, we all know it's an awkward situation, but still."

"You know how much since you make, Zoe Flynn?" Perry sighed.

"How much?"

"Zero," he blinked. Jamie walked back in and sat down into the couch, her body slumping a little. Seeing that as prime opportunity, Zoe reached her hand over and gently petted the bulge in Jamie's stomach.

"Zoe," Jamie frowned.

"Jamie, you need to relax," Zoe said. She sprawled her fingers out across Jamie's belly and shook her sister a little. "Loosen up, all this negativity and depression crap has gotta stop."

"That's easy for _you_ to say," Jamie snorted. "You're not pregnant with your little brother or little sister. Try and look at this from my perspective for once, will you?"

"I suppose that makes sense," Zoe mused. "Actually, that's kinda awkward…"

"Ya think?" Jamie rolled her eyes. Zoe continued to rub Jamie's stomach. "Seriously, what are you doing?"

"You're so _cute_," Zoe chortled.

"What?" Jamie blinked.

"You heard me, Jame-ster," Zoe smiled. "You're cute. Adorable. Whatever word you can think of to fit that particular description. I can't help that pregnancy makes your tiny self look so cute. It just happens to be a fact of life."

"Of course you think that…" Jamie sighed, holding her head in her hands. Perry pulled her away from Zoe and held her close up against his side.

"Is one of my babies aggravating the other?" he asked, rubbing her side.

"Yes," Jamie squeaked, her voice giving away her hormonal imbalance. He held her and let her calm down a little bit. Perry didn't fully understand what she was feeling, but he did know from years of experience that she just needed to cool down. Revan picked up the television remote and turned it on. The nature channel turned on. Jamie instantly started crying. "Why do they have to leave their young?!"

"Oops…baby turtle episode…" Revan mumbled. He changed it to a sitcom on Disney Channel and jumped up to grab some cookies. Jamie stopped crying, but she kept her face buried in Perry's arm.

"I love you, Daddy," she murmured. Perry bit the edge of his bill a little and rubbed her back. He wasn't sure if it was her or her hormones talking, really. She took air in with long, deep breaths.

"That's it, calm down," Perry told her. He felt the steady breathing in her chest and stomach as she leaned up against him. The child inside of her was moving a little bit. For a second, he wondered what it felt like, but then the idea that it was his child she was carrying filled his mind with guilt.

Guilt. That was all that seemed to be running his life nowadays. Guilt that he'd killed people, thousands of people, against his own will. Guilt that he'd probably led Phineas away from his own family. Guilt that he'd practically cheated on his wife and was now the father of his own grandchild. Guilt, guilt, guilt. It echoed in his mind and was painted all across the faces of his family.

Now, here he was. He couldn't change what had happened, but he could do his best to try and make amends. Sadly, the only mended relationship was his and Jamie's; even that seemed a little drier than it had been before. Jamie subconsciously expressed a slight distrust of him, which he didn't blame her for. Still, Perry was more than gracious that she'd forgiven him and given him a second chance. He only wished that his mate would do the same.

Jamie jerked a little, probably in reaction to the baby. She crawled up into Perry's lap and curled up into a ball. He wrapped his arms around her protectively and nuzzled her head with his bill. Her breathing slowed, and her eyes shut. For once, it seemed, his daughter was at peace. Smiling, he cast a quick glance at Zoe, only to find that she'd left the room. Revan must have still been retrieving cookies. Perry felt Jamie give a huge sigh, and then she situated herself some more.

"Dad…?" she murmured.

"Yes, baby girl?" he replied.

"When do you think…ya know…you and Mom will make up?" she asked. The question made Perry tense up a little. It came to say that even when a child grows up, they still are concerned about the relationship status of their parents. Doubt swelled up in Perry's chest.

"I…I don't know, sweetie," he frowned. "I've never hurt her like this before…so; I don't know how long she'll be mad at me for."

"But, why?" Jamie persisted. "I'm just as much at fault as you are. Matthew and Mom both forgave me, so why can't they forgive you?"

"Jamie, baby, you have to understand the situation from their point of view," Perry said quickly. "You're your mother's daughter, so she feels highly protective over you, and you're Matthew's mate, so he feels like I've treated you wrongly; which I have. Until they come to understand that I'm sorry with all of my heart, they won't forgive me."

"What has life come to?" Jamie cried. She took a deep breath and buried her face into Perry's chest. Frowning, he held her close and rubbed her back, silently wishing he could do more. He didn't trust himself with her like he used to, but Jamie had full confidence that he'd protect her.

"Shh…" Perry told her. She took ahold of his fur in fistfuls, trying to refrain from sobbing again. Guilt washed over Perry's heart again, reminding him of what he'd done to his own family. He'd torn it to pieces, like his family were a piece of paper, and someone had torn it up into miniscule shreds. Putting it back together seemed as hard and hopeless as was possible, yet, still Perry hoped to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This was betting on that light not being the headlamp of an oncoming train.

Not only this, but Perry also had Semi to worry about. Two things he didn't need happening at the same time were both making his world collapse in on him. No amount of shoveling seemed to be able to free him from this never-ending avalanche of bad events. What worse thing could possibly happen next? Death…yes, if someone died, it would only make things worse. That's when it hit Perry. He hadn't seen Lay, his firstborn, up to anything lately. Which meant one thing: Jamie was targeted, too.

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Phineas**

**Question: Did things just get worse with Perry's realization?**

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	15. Ni Hao Tibet

**Back to Phineas...the now very confusing bad/good guy? Yeah...I need to work on a name for that... -AJ **

* * *

Phineas

The direction that they had chosen to go had been under debate for a few weeks. Phineas wanted to go directly through China, as he knew fluent Mandarin and was a powerful enough Mytax to where he could influence Communist military members they might possibly go across. Baljeet insisted that they cut through the eastern-most reaches of India and avoid China altogether; he wasn't up for meetings with anyone in the Communist regime. Of course, Phineas had pointed out that in order to get to this so–called land bridge that Baljeet had mentioned to him, they would have to cut up through China, get across Mongolia, and then work their way up the rest of the way through Russia. Naturally, Phineas won. There was no getting around China.

It had taken them at least a month to get out of Nepal from Katmandu. Another month found them in Chinese-controlled Tibet. Phineas chose to take them on routes that provided the least civilization, which meant that they had to camp out in caves for most of the journey. It took Baljeet a week after they'd arrived in Tibet to convince Phineas that they needed to lodge in hotels so that they could get food. His counter-argument was a lack of money, but Baljeet quickly solved that problem by unwillingly using his powers to fashion Renminbi money for their use. Unable to deny that their needs were provided for, Phineas then took them in the direction of the nearest civilized place. This happened to be the city of Gun-tse.

They arrived in the city at about two in the morning, if one were to guess. It was built into a mountain, which already told them it was a cold place. In the streets, a few people were ambling around. They wore red garments that were draped over their bodies. Some had a gold wrap around this. Phineas made his way up to one of them and instantly began talking.

"Duìbùqǐ, dàn nǐ zhīdào wǒ de péngyǒu, wǒ kěyǐ jiēshòu zhùsù?" he asked. Baljeet frowned. He wished to know what they were saying, but his Chinese was rough, as he hadn't used it in a while. The man blinked at him for a moment.

"Méiyǒu rén huì jiēshòu nǐ zài zhège shíhou zài zǎochen," the man replied. Something about the morning.

"Qǐng, xiānshēng, wǒ qiú qiú nǐle mǒu chù fāsòng gěi women," Phineas said, his voice sounding pleading. "Wǒmen yǐjīng xíngshǐle jǐ gè yuè, diūshī hé wèi jīng xiǎowū Wǒ de jiātíng xūyào wǒ, hǎo ma."

"Ń…" the man breathed. For a moment, the two stared at each other. Baljeet could see a bit of sympathy in the man's eyes. Perhaps the man saw Phineas' troubled spirit. "Wǒ kěyǐ wéi nín zài wǒmen de sìmiào de xiǎowū. Dàn nǐ bùnéng gàosu rènhé rén. Wǒ xùnsù."

"What is happening?" Baljeet whispered.

"We're following him," Phineas told him, nodding in the direction of the man. The man glanced at Baljeet for a second, and then he walked briskly off down the street. Without question, Baljeet followed behind Phineas and the man, not sure what to make of the situation. From what he knew about Tibet, this man was a Buddhist monk.

"Does he speak English or Hindi?" Baljeet questioned. Phineas licked his lips a little and tapped the man on the shoulder.

"Nǐ huì jiǎng yīngyǔ huò yìn dì yǔ?" he asked him. The man didn't turn to look at him when he replied.

"Wǒ kěyǐ jiǎng yìn dì yǔ, shì."

"He speaks Hindi," Phineas relayed to his friend. Baljeet nodded and decided to ask his own questions now.

"Tō, jahām̐ āpa, sara hamēṁ lē jā rahē haiṁ?" Baljeet questioned, making good use of his native tongue to better know where he was going. The man waved to the top of the mountain where a temple sat overlooking the entire city. He turned and faced the two men with a slight smile.

"I do speak English," he chuckled. Both stopped in their tracks and blinked, unsure of why the man had only claimed to know only Hindi before. "I like to test you foreigners. It is obvious you are both Americans."

"Oh?" Phineas raised his eyebrows.

"You," he said, pointing to Phineas, "have no accent whatsoever. Your friend, he has a relaxed Indian accent. He has been in the United States for a while, no doubt."

"Very clever," Baljeet remarked.

"That cleverness comes from years of meditation," he smiled kindly. "I can also tell that you are exceptional human beings."

"How so?" Phineas demanded, his voice suddenly taking on a defensive tone.

"Relax, my friend, you are of no danger here," the man said softly. "Many of your kind have requested stay here, and we monks, well, some of us, give it freely. We see you as the superior men, as enlightened ones."

"Enlightened?" Phineas narrowed his eyes. "No, we are not enlightened. Baljeet may be, but I, sir, am not enlightened. Simply cursed."

"You say you are cursed, I say you are enlightened," the man said passively. "It does not matter what you call it, you are set apart from other humans because of your power and ability. I have met many a man who has said they are cursed, only to find that they were misjudging a blessing."

"There's a first time for everything," Phineas replied, smirking a little to himself.

"We shall see," he told him. "I am Kunchen. You have said the Hindi boy is Baljeet; what may I call you?"

"My name is Phineas," he said curtly. "Some know me as Pyrophineac, and others even as Akela. One calls me husband, three call me father, and others call me brother. Take your pick."

"Ah, I see that you do not want to play games with me," Kunchen chuckled. "Well, I can tell you one thing, Phineas, you will not always get a straight answer from me, but can most certainly have my trust."

"I think I can live with that," Phineas returned.

"Good, good," Kunchen said, dipping his head. He led them up to the front steps of the temple and turned to face them. "I warn you ahead of time, friends, that the other monks may not be appreciative of you as I am. Some believe your kind are demons and I will suffer their remarks later. As for now, make no conversation unless you are directly engaged. Be careful what you disclose to my fellow brothers. Is this understood?"

"Yes, it is," Phineas nodded. Baljeet did the same.

"Would you be more comfortable if you pulled the hood down away from your face, Phineas?" Kunchen asked.

"No," Phineas replied coldly. "I do not wish for those men to see me. The hood is a representation of my status in the world, and I intend to leave it on."

"Suit yourself," Kunchen sighed. He turned and mounted the steps up to the temple, not waving them on, but rather expecting them to follow in suit. They looked at each other, confused at first, but then they just walked along after him. Kunchen took them through the temple's entrance and stopped. It was as if he was predicting Phineas and Baljeet to stop in their tracks and gaze at the building in awe, which they did. The inside of the temple was built elegantly. It was all marble or jade; Phineas couldn't remember the difference, but he was certain it was one of those two. Some areas were gold-plated, while the furniture was all ebony colored wood. Laughing, Kunchen cleared his throat a little to get their attention.

"May I show you to my chambers?" he asked. "It is not much, but it is all I can offer."

"We certainly won't complain," Phineas answered. Baljeet gave the man a quick glance before smiling politely and responding with a deep nod. Kunchen smiled and directed them through the temple. He took them deep down into the lower parts of the shrine and showed them to the monks' quarters. From the sole entrance to the hall the rooms were all connected by, Kunchen's living space was the third door down on the right. They all walked over to it, and Kunchen bent down to unlock the door. As they did, another monk walked up behind them and glanced at Phineas.

"Kunchen, you bring more Americans here without first asking who they are?" he demanded.

"Keep to your own business, Thokmay," Kunchen said grimly.

"Do you not recognize this robe?" Thokmay continued. He grabbed the sleeve of Phineas' robe and pulled it up quickly. Baljeet could see Phineas was fighting to avoid defending himself. "He is one of _them_. They are all the same."

"No, they are not," Kunchen said softly. He pushed Phineas away from his comrade gently and stood between them. "This one is different. He had no choice. You can accept this, or you can leave him to my care. The choice is up to you, Thokmay. I cannot choose for you."

"Someday you will pay for this protection of demons!" Thokmay hissed. He turned on his heel and speed-walked away from the trio. Baljeet put a hand to Phineas, who was still trying to resist the urge to send streams of fire down the hallway after the man that had dubbed him a demon.

"Calm yourself," Baljeet warned him. "Remember, you are the better man."

He felt the heat growing in Phineas' arm die down under his own touch. Baljeet wasn't sure it if was the fact that he was the one in contact with Phineas or if he'd really decided to spare the man, but just to be safe, he held on tightly to his friend's arm until Kunchen had locked them into his quarters. Kunchen nodded for them to sit down. Baljeet had to pull Phineas down.

"I hope you will forgive me for that…inconvenience," Kunchen said, licking his lips. "I did warn that some would not be willing to accept you."

"By you, you mean me, don't you?" Phineas said quietly.

"Yes, I am afraid the ones who wear the blackened robes have tried to kill our people before," Kunchen told him nervously. "But I sense a good in you that I did not sense in others. You told me when we met that your family needed you. I know not if you lied about having a family, but I trust that you do because of the sincerity with which you told me. You might have once been a horrid man, but you have certainly changed for better. That is why I trust you. That is why."

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Ferb**

**Question: Is Kunchen right in trusting Phineas? Vice versa?**

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	16. Found

**Yeah, this story is driving me nuts. I'm having a hard time putting what I want to happen into words. -AJ **

* * *

Ferb

Ferb was pacing in the living room, trying to think of any possible options he had left. The only other people in the room were Lyla and, for some odd reason, Jamie. It seemed like Jamie appeared everywhere, though. Perhaps she had an answer…

No, no. Ferb certainly didn't see any use in pestering Jamie. After all, there was nothing she would remotely know about Phineas, even if she tended to know things she shouldn't. Still, the temptation was there. He turned his gaze to the two ladies in the room, who were talking softly to one another. A slight smile fell upon his lips as he watched Lyla fully engage herself in conversation.

"So, vampires actually exist?" she asked, her eyes sparkling with wonder.

"Sorta," Jamie laughed. "We're actually called Vampri. There are the ones with Pure Hej and the ones with Hidari, or 'Unclean' Hej. The 'unclean' ones, such as me, are only different because we can use venom to transform other beings into vampires. It's a little complicated, I guess."

"Just a little," Lyla chuckled. "Does that affect you in any way?"

"Depends on the situation," Jamie replied, tracing circles on her stomach with one finger. "For example, some people's blood smells stronger to me than others' do. I tend to only be attracted to the blood that smells better. Like, my dad's. It's hard not to bite him again."

"Again?" Lyla blinked.

"Yeah," Jamie giggled a little. "When I was a baby, I went straight for his jugular, says my mom. That must have been unpleasant for him. They had been feeding me by letting me bite his arm, but after that they decided to just use a needle and stuff to transfer the blood to me."

"Wow," Lyla remarked. "That's gotta be tough."

"You don't even know the half of it," Jamie sighed. She rested her hands on her stomach and shifted a little. "It's never affected me to the point at which I've felt I actually wanted to drink someone's blood…well…not until now, anyways."

"What do you mean by that?" Lyla asked, looking slightly nervous about that comment.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you," Jamie frowned, biting the edge of her bill a little. Lyla relaxed some. "I just mean that for some reason, as of late, I've been having these awful cravings for blood…"

"Could that be because you're kinda pregnant?" Lyla tilted her head.

"I guess," Jamie said slowly. "But wouldn't it have happened before? I mean, I've been pregnant twice before and I never once craved blood. It was always somewhat normal food. Well, minus laundry detergent…"

"You craved laundry detergent?" Lyla said, emphasizing her astonishment by raising her eyebrows. Jamie let out a laugh.

"Yeah, that's pretty weird, even I'll admit that," she smiled.

"It's actually not an uncommon occurrence," Ferb threw in. Both ladies turned to look at him. "A craving is simply the body's way of telling the mother what kinds of nutrients she needs in her diet. Granted, if it can't find a way to make one think of the nutrients she can get from regular food, it will resort to strange things such as laundry detergents and other cleaning supplies."

"There are nutrients in laundry detergent?" Jamie said. Ferb laughed a little.

"Not exactly," he shook his head.

"So what does it mean if I'm craving blood, then, Uncle Know-It-All?" Jamie joked, giving him a not-so-serious quizzical look.

"It means that you either need a lot of iron or that you may actually need blood itself," Ferb replied. Jamie sat back a little, not quite expecting that kind of response. "I read about it in a book I had to read in school about Lesser Vampri. Typically, when a mother is pregnant with a Lesser Vampri, they will crave their own blood. They'll settle for the blood of others, but they really want and need their own blood."

"Are you trying to say that he's a Vampri?" Jamie asked, clutching her stomach with one hand.

"I'm saying it's possible," Ferb corrected. "The only way we'll know for sure is if you stop eating anything else. If you'll only take blood, then the baby's a Vampri."

"How come this didn't happen to Mom?" Jamie frowned.

"You're a quintuplet," he pointed out. "Her body was focused on more than one baby at the time. That's why you nearly died at birth."

"Why is everything so complicated?" Jamie groaned. "Why can't there just be some big resolution that goes, 'Poof! Everything is fixed' ?"

"I wonder that oftentimes myself," Ferb sighed.

"Is it just me, or does your family seem to have an odd knack for attracting danger?" Lyla commented. "You know what I mean, eh?"

"Yes, yes we do," Ferb nodded. He stood up and left the two ladies to themselves. What he really needed wasn't an engaging conversation about what kinds of things Jamie craved when she was pregnant; he needed someone to tell him where his brother was. He walked out onto the front porch of his brother's home and sat down on the swing that hung down from the ceiling.

"Penny for your thoughts."

Ferb turned his head around to see that Xhirxhti had been standing by the doorway the whole time. He sighed and started off into the street, unsure of what to say to her. She had never really head-on engaged him like this before, so it was quite unusual.

"I just want my brother back," Ferb told her.

"I understand," she nodded. For a moment, she remained silent and fingered her necklace a little bit. "Would it be against your liking if I scried him?"

"Pardon?" Ferb blinked.

"Do you want me to scry your brother?" she asked, edging towards him a little. "Like, I can use Hej to summon him through a pool of water. It's like that…oh, what do you call it, the picture that moves and you can talk to one another through the computer thing?"

"A video chat?" Ferb suggested.

"Yes!" Xhirxhti exclaimed. "That's what it's like! The only difference being that you can contact people who can't scry, whereas on that video chat thing the other person has to have a…um…video chat ability thing."

"You can do that?" he said, trying not to sound too hopeful.

"Of course I can," she laughed. "I'm a Kyea. We can all do that. My question to you, though, is would you like me to scry him or not?"

"Yes, please, by all means!" Ferb answered. "I have to know if he's alive!"

"Very well, then," she nodded. "Follow me."

With that being said, she turned on her heel and headed back into the house. Ferb hopped up and followed her, not wanting to question her logic, but very anxious to see if she was actually going to let him see his brother. She took him out to the backyard and waved him over to the in-ground pool.

"Why the pool?" he asked.

"Because my kids aren't going to bother us out here and it's water," she said absent-mindedly. The Kyea took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and knelt down near the water. "Vayn Phineas, qoim rih aerok aerokhr vaynhr."

"What did you say?" Ferb frowned, unsure of what she was doing.

"See Phineas, how he is to be seen," she whispered. The water began to swirl around in a whirlpool fashion, and colors started to seep into the area that was swirling downwards. The edges of the scry window turned an orangey-yellow, the colors of fire. "Rih rodauce!"

For a moment, the water didn't change. Ferb started to wonder if her method could actually find a missing man or not. He went to ask her if he could just try something else, but she held up a finger before he could even form the words on his lips. The water shook violently and then burst into color, revealing a dimly lit room in which two men were sleeping. One was obviously Baljeet, whose face was facing the scry window, but asleep. The other was facing away and covered in a black shrouded cape. All that could be seen of him was his ragged black jeans and filthy blue and white sneakers.

"Phineas?" Ferb breathed. That couldn't be him. It just couldn't. Xhirxhti opened her eyes and looked into the scene with confusion written across her face. "Is…is that him?"

"Those are Mytax robes…" she said softly. "If it is him…but…I didn't know he was an Ankunin…did you?"

"No…" Ferb shook his head. The figure sat up, most likely having heard them speaking. Both held their breath for a moment. As he turned around, both released that breath in a curt gasp. "It is him…"

"Ferb?" Phineas' voice wavered. He stepped towards the window and seemed to scrutinize it. "I must be dreaming…"

"No, no!" Ferb said quickly. "You're not!"

"That's…that's really you?" he stammered. Phineas reached a hand out to try and touch the scry window, but his hand just brushed through the air. "How is this possible? Where are you?"

"I'm…at your house," he admitted, realizing that what he was saying was truly strange. "Xhirxhti is here with me. She's scrying you. The real question is, Phineas, where are you? And why won't you come back?"

"I am coming back," he said a little firmly. "And…I'm…in…in Tibet…"

"You're in Tibet?!" Xhirxhti exclaimed. The scry window shifted a little, probably from her outburst. "Why did you leave us?!"

"That is not important right now," he said slowly. "The more important thing is that I get home, and I get home fast. We're planning to cross over the land bridge."

The window suddenly closed itself, and the two were left alone.

"Did he just say land bridge?" Xhirxhti asked. "He's gonna kill himself!"

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Jamie**

**Question: What will Ferb do know?**

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	17. A Mother-Daughter Moment

**Is it weird to admit that I absolutely love Jamie? She's my home-platy-Kyea thingy. Yeah... -AJ **

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Jamie

Jamie grabbed an apple off of the counter in the kitchen and considered it for a moment. Usually, she would have really enjoyed eating an apple. The skin was tough, the flesh was soft, and the core was thin and good for nibbling at. That should have attracted her to its juicy presence, yet she honestly didn't want it. She wanted something salty, something warm. She wanted that little bit of irony taste that came with a texture that was liquid, yet thicker than water. Jamie just couldn't deny it; she really wanted blood.

This craving had, unfortunately, gotten worse over the past few days, and telling her uncle and Lyla was the first time she'd really mentioned it to anyone. She thought it was just an internal wish for her dad to return home, as she couldn't pick up his scent if he was at Revan's house. The proposition that her pregnancy was in dire need of blood seemed to be a preposterous idea. Still, her uncle's words somewhat hung around at the back of her mind like a kite stuck in a tree; the only way we'll know for sure is if you stop eating anything else. If you'll only take blood, then the baby's a Vampri.

She didn't want to think of herself as being the cause for another blood-draining family member. Her family never had to tell her they either feared or resented her; she could see it on their faces. Having a baby with her same genetic make-up and, as she referred to it, curse would grieve her to no end. She sat the apple down and moved away from the counter, sad that she found her usual love for apples to be diminished. With a sigh, she walked in the direction of the living room again, only to be stopped in her tracks by a very flustered Ferb and her mother.

"Jamie, your uncle has lost it!" Xhirxhti exclaimed.

"Ferb?" Jamie asked, pointing a thumb at the man as he ran out of the room. She couldn't see why not.

"No, Phineas!" Xhirxhti said. Jamie's face contorted.

"You found him?" she questioned.

"No, but I did manage to scry him," Xhirxhti sighed. She grabbed Jamie by the arm and pulled her along behind her. "Here, you and I can have a nice talk in my bedroom."

"Why in your bedroom?" Jamie complained. Xhirxhti kept walking. "You know, my bedroom is still shared by a couple who loves each other very much."

This made Xhirxhti stop in her tracks. She turned to face Jamie, still clutching her arm tightly, and stared into her daughter's eyes with an anger Jamie couldn't put a description to. Jamie swallowed and bit the edge of her bill, terrified to see the outcome of her comment.

"I don't care how many times you insult me, Jamie Marie Flynn," Xhirxhti said coldly. "Your father is not coming back here."

"Says the woman who once claimed she couldn't live without him!" Jamie cried, breaking her arm away from her mother's grasp. "You're acting just like a child, Mom! He said he was sorry, why can't you be the adult and forgive him?!"

"What he did was unforgivable!" Xhirxhti replied, jabbing a finger at Jamie's stomach. Her body shook with hurt and rage. Jamie could see the tears starting to form at the corners of her mother's eyes. "How can I forgive him for doing that to you?"

"Mom, think of the example you're setting for the rest of my siblings," Jamie said softly, trying to tone down their loud conversation a little. "They're going to think it's okay to kick their mates out for hurting them. They're going to see that holding grudges is okay. But that's not what family is about. Families are supposed to heal and work past the bad things. Didn't that ever happen to your parents?"

"Yes," Xhirxhti said curtly. "Indeed it did. My father was a strong supporter of abolishing Du Xaxzte Mhn Pyrx as the P.T.B.A.'s social and foreign policy. He was for equal rights for all and the legalization of Dnalizaws and Hidari. Mother absolutely hated the idea, but because unless a queen is widowed, Amoyxn policy states that she cannot pass laws or perform any executive or judicial acts."

"So, your parents agreed to disagree or worked out a solution, right?" Jamie continued.

"No," Xhirxhti shook her head. "My mother murdered my father and blamed it on a member of the Royal Court."

"Oh…" Jamie frowned. Her point was pretty much blown out of the water now. She took a deep breath and thought about it for a moment before responding. "Well, you can prove that you're better than your own mother, since it's obvious you feel a bit of strain with her."

"Well, I…" Xhirxhti started, but then she paused. She seemed to have not expected Jamie to throw out that card. Her jaw was worked around a bit in her mouth. "And you want me to just go out and forgive your father? Just like that? No giving him grief, no yelling at him, just accept that he's sorry and forget about it?"

"Yes?" Jamie grinned, trying to hide the fact that that was all she'd hoped for since her father had been thrown out. Xhirxhti smiled at Jamie a little in mockery and then resumed her scowl.

"No," she said bluntly. "I won't do that."

"Oh, come on!" Jamie exclaimed, a little more loudly than she'd meant to. She suddenly found herself on the verge of tears. What could she do? Her mother was tearing apart her own family. Instead of hiding it, Jamie just let the tears spill out. "I-I thought you loved me!"

"Jamie, don't play the 'I'm pregnant and I'm going to cry,' card," Xhirxhti said, trying not to sound hurt.

"B-but our family is crumbling to pieces and you're just going to let it happen?!" Jamie cried. She covered her face with her hands and allowed herself to sob. If nothing else, it would convince her mother to change her mind, perhaps.

"I don't mean to let our family fall apart, Jamie, it's just happening that way," her mother said. "We just have to work through it without your father. We've got your uncles here, I'm sure they can help us."

"As if that justifies it!" Jamie shot back, choking on a sob. She peeked through her fingers a little and saw several of her siblings looking around the doorway behind her mother. They stood there in complete silence, not saying anything, but just listening to their mother argue with her. "Which of my uncles can give me what Daddy gave me? None of them! They're not my father, and they never will be!"

"Then you'll just have to deal with it," Xhirxhti told her firmly. "I can't take this insubordination from you, Jamie, and don't think this won't have you in trouble."

"Niatirb!" Jamie shouted back. Her mother froze. In Kyeaclae, that word was only used to accuse criminals of crimes worthy of death. Jamie furrowed her brow and tried to slow her breathing, but her crying kept trying to break through. Unable to look at her mother any longer, Jamie spun on her heel and stormed out of the kitchen. She knew what she'd said was wrong, but she had no intentions of taking it back. The tension she'd probably just created might jog her mother's way of thinking a little bit.

Unwilling to turn around and see if her mother was making an attempt to follow her, Jamie headed straight for her bedroom and curled up in her own bed. She let herself cry, knowing it would only hurt worse if she didn't. Jamie felt a hand fall on her shoulder and start to rub it.

"Shh."

"Matthew, what has our life come to?" she choked, trying not to mottle her speech with broken sobs.

"It's okay, baby, just calm down," he said soothingly. He crawled up next to her and wrapped his arms around her, letting her know it was alright and that he was there for her. "Everything's going to be okay, I know it will."

"She won't forgive him…"

"All in good time, baby," he told her. "Remember how they were when we first met? She was looking like she wouldn't accept him back then either. But everything sorted itself out."

"Must it take me nearly dying for my parents to come back together?" she murmured into her hands. Matthew didn't respond. He knew it was probably true; she could sense it even if she couldn't read minds like he could. "Perhaps that's the way to do it…"

"What?" he blinked, looking her in the eyes and frowning deeply. "Jamie, please don't do anything stupid. You're-"

"Pregnant," she finished for him. "You don't think I'm aware of that? Well, I am. And if the only way to get Mom and Dad together and happy again is to tell them my life is in danger, then so be it. We'll stage something. Or…"

"Or…what?"

"Maybe what Uncle Ferb said can help me," Jamie smiled a little. "He told me that if I can't eat anything and only will take blood for nourishment, then the baby is a Vampri."

"How is that going to help you?" Matthew sighed.

"Think about it," Jamie smirked. "Only blood for food. Nothing else. They'll think something's wrong with me. They'll think I'm in danger."

"And how is this going to bring them back together, Jamie?" he frowned.

"You really think Mom's going to do anything to me without Dad's consent?" she replied. "You know how he is about me. This has got to work, you have to trust me on this one! I promise I'll quit the act after they're back together."

"Alright, but if you end up hurting yourself," Matthew warned. "I won't say I didn't try to convince you there were other options."

"Do you have any other suggestions?" Jamie said pointedly. He didn't move to say anything. "Didn't think so."

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked, putting a hand to her forehead.

"I'm feeling fine," she nodded, giving him a slight smile. "But…I do think it'll be pretty easy to play off that I want blood…"

"And why's that?" Matthew raised one brow curiously.

"Because…" she sighed. "I actually kinda do."

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Perry**

**Question: Is Jamie in for another crisis?**

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	18. Reunion

**Okay, last chapter for today and then you must wait for me to catch up with myself. xP (FYI, a song is refernced: Hold On by TobyMac. I don't own those couple of lyrics.) -AJ **

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Perry

"You really think this is going to work?" Perry asked, as Revan handed him a wooden spoon. "Dude, this isn't…"

"I know, I know," Revan said hurriedly. Perry gave him a pointed look and sighed. "Look, you said you were going to trust me on this one, and if you're going to trust me, you have to use the wooden spoon."

"Why can't I use a black plastic spoon?" Perry complained.

"Because I don't have one!" Revan shot back. For a second time, Perry sighed. "Don't give me that attitude, Perry Flynn, this is your entire life we're talking about here. If you screw this up, I don't know what the rest of your life will be."

"It'll be baking freaking cookies with you," Perry said smartly, putting on a false smile for his friend. He'd thought he'd get some kind of sound advice when he'd asked Revan about how to fix his relationship with Xhirxhti, but he'd never expected Revan to ask him to serenade her. For starters, Perry didn't know the first thing about singing. He could play the guitar, but he certainly had never sang to try and impress anyone. Another down to this was that it was raining outside and it was nighttime, so the neighbors might just have a fit.

"Well, it won't be a complete bust, then," Revan smiled. He handed Perry a paper bowtie.

"No…just…no," Perry shook his head.

"Put the bowtie on," Revan insisted. With another sigh, this one much louder, Perry took the bowtie from his friend and examined it.

"This is a tape-on tie," he frowned.

"Yeah, it's a Cravate-Scotch," Revan piped up. He pulled out a box that had that same title on it. "I got them while in France for a really good deal. They're simple and easy, and you don't have to worry about washing them."

"Have I ever told you that you're a derp?" Perry said, working his jaw a little bit.

"Why, yes, yes you have," Revan nodded. He bent over to look for something else. "Now put that bowtie on and you'd better be holding that spoon still."

"Fine," Perry replied. He put the bowtie on his chest and stood there, waiting to see what other ridiculous items Revan had for him to either wear or use as other things they didn't have access to. "Actually, I think this wooden spoon makes for a fantastic microphone."

"Really?" Revan asked, poking his head back up.

"No!" Perry shouted. Revan put his hands up a little and shied away from Perry. "Seriously, I'm supposed to be making her feel like I'm worth it still and you're handing me paper ties and wooden spoon microphones. How is this going to attract her?"

"I think it's the serenading that will attract her," Revan shrugged. "Do you need some perfume?"

"Cologne," Perry corrected. "Perfume is for girls and women."

"Fine," Revan said, sticking his tongue out a little. He pulled out an unmarked bottle and began to gingerly spray the liquid at Perry. It smelled vaguely of freshly baked cookies, but Perry couldn't bring himself to complain about any more things to Revan. He knew his friend was just trying to help, even if it seemed like a failed help at the time. Revan picked up a guitar and smiled. "So, are we ready to rock and roll?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Perry sighed.

"Good, good!" Revan said, giving him a hard slap on the back. He kept his hand there and pushed Perry along to his front door. "Now, on to save the day!"

"Okay, just don't make me look stupid…" Perry grumbled. He opened the door and walked outside, Revan trailing behind him happily. They took their time walking over to the sidewalk in front of Phineas' house and stood for a moment staring at it, letting the rain fall down peacefully around them. "What if this doesn't work?"

"Of course it'll work," Revan told him. "Because it's you."

"Thanks…I think…" Perry sighed.

"Just relax and focus on what you have to sing," Revan smiled. He started to strum at the guitar a little. Perry shifted his feet a little and wasn't sure what to do at first. He didn't want to sing, especially not into a wooden spoon, but Revan seemed certain that it would work. Taking a deep breath, he did his best to remember the lyrics.

"Wake up to the morning light. Wipe away the lonely night. Let a brand new day wash over you…" he sang softly, still nervous. Revan nodded to him. Somewhere, he heard someone open a window- the window to his bedroom. "Wanna see you smile again, show some love to your crazy friends; wipe your tears away those days are through."

"That's it…" Revan chuckled. Perry gave him a sideways look.

"If you move just a little a little bit closer, you can put your head on my shoulder, yeah, yeah."

"You've got nice pitch," Revan commented. Perry cut across his throat and shook his head a little. When he looked back to the window, he saw Xhirxhti looking back at him. He dropped the spoon and pointed accusingly at Revan. She frowned a little.

"Xhirx, I'm sorry!" Perry blurted out. She frowned. "Baby, I'll do anything, just please don't do this!"

"It's three in the morning," she whispered. "Could you do the world a favor and…you know…not yell?"

"Was I yelling?" Perry swallowed. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. I mean to say, um, er…you know I think Revan was trying to test his vocal chords."

"Hey!" Revan exclaimed.

"Perry, just leave," Xhirxhti sighed. She drew back into the house and pressed up against the wall where Perry couldn't see her. Determined to keep her attention, Perry took the guitar from Revan and strummed his own tune.

"You told me once you couldn't see yourself without me; though today I feel as if without you I'll be. We've been together through the thickness and the thin, so won't you look past all my faults and let me come back to you again?"

Xhirxhti didn't move. She stayed put, listening to him, but trying her best not to pay him mind. Perry strummed a little in silence, trying to think of what else he could possibly say. Then it hit him.

"You're always on my mind, and I can't really say why. It's like you've taken all my heart and made it just feel alright. I know I've been a jerk and maybe even a mindless fool, but won't you look past my faults and let me come back to you?"

He could hear a little movement come from within the window, but he saw nothing. Perry drew in his breath a little and tried not to give up on his mission. If there was one thing in life he couldn't live without, it was her.

"'Cause here I am, singing into the rain; looking at life without you- baby, it'll never be the same. 'Cause you're my only true love, you're my only true love, and a life without you's nothing but pain, oh, life without you's nothing but pain. Yeah, singing into the rain."

Licking his lips, he paused and waited to see if she would respond. Nothing. She may not have even been there, still, but he was going to keep singing nonetheless. What did he have to lose, anyways? He'd already lost pretty much everything.

"You're everything I know, and I can't say it's not so. It's like you've taken my heart captive and then let it go. I know I've screwed up some, and maybe even looked a little dumb, but won't you look past my faults and not make me run?"

For a moment, he strummed without singing. He reflected on his life and wondered what it would truly be like without her. But when he looked up, his heart skipped a beat. She was standing on the porch, one hand resting on the side of the house and the other resting at her side. Her eyes locked with his and held his gaze tight.

"'Cause here I am, singing into the rain; looking at life without you- baby, it'll never be the same."

She walked closer, slowly stepping out into the rain and towards him. He kept singing, though, not willing to break up his self-made chorus.

"'Cause you're my only true love, you're my only true love, and a life without you's nothing but pain, oh, life without you's nothing but pain."

Xhirxhti came to a stop right in front of him, still staring into his eyes. Her face was pretty much emotionless; Perry didn't know what her next move would be. He continued to strum at the guitar, simply because he was at a loss for what to do at this moment.

"Yeah, singing into the rain."

"Is it acceptable to say I'm sorry?" she whispered. "I never meant to hurt you; I was just hurt myself…and I didn't think about the consequences of my actions. Could you ever forgive me?"

"Yes," Perry nodded. He handed his guitar to Revan and gently put his hands on Xhirxhti's shoulders. "I love you. I always have, and I always will. Of course you're forgiven, baby."

"I love you, too," she said, breaking out into tears. She pulled him forward and locked him in a passionate kiss and wrapping her arms around his body to pull him closer. Perry felt his heart begin to melt once more, enjoying her warm presence here in his arms while it lasted. It was fleeting, though, and for a brief second, she pulled away from him and looked him in the eyes again.

"What?" he asked softly.

"You're forgiven," she said quietly. He pulled her back into himself, holding her against his chest to where he could feel her breathing slow and steady. It had been so long since he'd been able to touch her; now here she was, wrapped up in his arms in full embrace. She kissed him again, this time holding the kiss for as long as either could, not willing to let the other go. Rain streamed down their fur, but they didn't care. They didn't even care that Revan had mysteriously left at some point while they were kissing; they were just happy to be kissing. Everything in their world seemed perfect, as it should be.

Now came the hard part; letting go so they could go inside.

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Phineas**

**Question: Do we like this turn of events? :)**

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	19. The Retropelet

**I'm on a Resolution Writing Craze, so...meap! -AJ **

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Phineas

"AUUGGGGGHHH!"

Phineas sat up from where he was lying in the melting snow and turned his face skywards. Icy tears streamed down his chapped cheeks, burning them even more than the unforgiving winds had already done. After the freak vision he'd had of Ferb and Xhirxhti contacting him, he'd run out of the temple and proceeded to sob unmercifully in the cold. He could not stay there; the kindness of Kunchen couldn't hide the fact that he feared Phineas. They all did. So Phineas had to leave.

He'd left Baljeet a note, telling the doctor that he'd be fine on his own. If he could just muster up the strength to run away from this place, he'd put several weeks of travel between himself and the man that seemed to trust him so. Phineas could find his own way back to Danville. It wasn't that hard- he just had to stick to the plan. Well, sort of. Without Baljeet, Phineas would need to be able to rent or buy a boat to cross the passage between Russia and Alaska.

Placing his hands on the ground beside his knees, Phineas slowly pushed himself up. The wind caught around his thin frame, so he pulled his robes more tightly around himself. Its edges whipped madly around his ankles. If he weren't a wielder of fire, he'd be frozen to the core right now. That's when a thought came to him. It was a dangerous thought, yes, but it would eliminate the long journey back to Danville. He turned on his heels and made for the temple once more.

"Baljeet!" he cried, dashing up the steps. One or two monks turned to stare at him coldly, but Phineas paid them no mind. "Baljeet, hurry!"

He found the steps leading to the lower levels and began to descend them at a rather rapid pace. Down, down he went, determined to find his friend and tell him of their fast way home. A few more monks passed by him, jumping out of his way to keep from being touched. When he'd nearly reached the bottom, though, someone running in his direction hit him full force, and they both went flying down the stairs.

"I'm so sorry!" Phineas apologized, sitting up to see whom he had run over. A first glance had his already red cheeks turning a deep shade of scarlet. Baljeet sat up and rubbed the side of his head.

"And this proves that you are still the Phineas I grew up with," he chuckled. "Always running into someone because he's always running too fast to look where he's going."

"Nonsense, I look where I'm going," Phineas said, licking his dry lips. He stood up quickly and pulled Baljeet to his feet. "But aside from that, I have a way to get us back to Danville at a quicker pace."

"Oh, do you now?" Baljeet frowned. "Please do not tell me that you can fly."

"What? No!" Phineas shook his head. "Me? Fly? No, no, no! Only airplanes and jetpacks can make _me_ fly. No, I don't mean for us to fly, I mean for us to teleport!"

"You have a Retropelet?" Baljeet winced. Phineas hadn't thought of that. He was going to say they travel by fire, but now that Baljeet mentioned it, it would be far safer to travel by Retropelet, the trademark teleportation device used by the O.M.A., especially its Mytax.

"Why, yes, yes I do," he smiled lightly, glad that his friend had mentioned it. "But we must go outside to use it, I'm afraid. The monks won't like that much will they?"

"No, I don't suppose they would…" Baljeet hummed, sounding equally skeptic about the method of travel. "Who in their right mind would want Eclipse knowing where they are?"

"You actually think she tracks them?" Phineas laughed. He grabbed Baljeet by the wrist and dragged him along, back out into the cold and wet. "That is a mere myth! She can trace fire-travel better than she can trace Retropelet travel. Oh, you must trust me in this- we are safer than a nuclear bomb shelter."

"Indeed," Baljeet huffed. Phineas reached into his robe and pulled out the small disc. It much resembled the stereotypical flying saucer, only it was several hundred times smaller and had a sole way of being activated. Phineas placed it on the ground and lit both of his hands on fire.

"Are you ready to travel how no Eiyu-tachi has ever travelled before?" Phineas grinned at him, forgetting all of his previous worries. Baljeet shook his head yes, then no, and then yes again. Laughing a little, Phineas turned his hands inwards, streamed fire between them in a line. He brought the hands together and then flipped them both outwards quickly, aiming a straight line of fire at the Retropelet. The device squealed a little before emitting a large void of stars and planets before them.

"_We_ are going to step into _that_?" Baljeet asked, shaking a little.

"Yes, yes we are," Phineas smiled. "All we have to do is tell it where to go, and it will take us there."

"This is utter madness!" Baljeet cried. "You trust such a device?"

"Of course I do," Phineas chuckled, waving his hands to put them out. "I've been travelling in them since before I was married to Isabella."

"Fair enough," Baljeet dipped his head slightly. He stepped forward.

"Now, hold onto my hand so that we aren't separated," Phineas instructed. Making a face at Phineas, Baljeet begrudgingly did so. "Just follow me, and all will be fine, alright?"

"Alright," Baljeet said, his voice expressing concern.

"Sdopi!" Phineas cried, looking at the void. The world within it seemed to spin, twisting and turning like a vortex. He pulled Baljeet by the arm and leapt into it, unafraid of embracing the ever-familiar emptiness like he would an old friend.

Travelling by Retropelet is a curious thing. It is controlled by the mind of the one who activated it, and what one sees while travelling inside of it depends on the person. Phineas saw flaming stars, planets, and volcanic craters. Baljeet saw the many wonders of the universe flying about him. There they sat, in a seemingly pointless and indefinite realm, travelling across space at a set time. No time passed while they were in it, and yet it felt like a thousand years in which they were trapped there.

Their bodies were suspended in this never-ending space. Not a muscle could they move, not a sound could they make, and never once did they blink. It was as if they existed everywhere at once and nowhere at all. Infinity screamed at them, trying to show her full face in the blinking of an eye. Aye, to Phineas, travelling by Retropelet never got old, nor did he ever see the same spectacle twice. It was a sad thing that such a beautiful thing could be brought about by such darkness as the Mytax. In his mind's eye, none of the O.M.A. deserved to have such access to magnificence.

Phineas did his best to focus on his task. The trickiest part of being the activator was keeping one's mind set on where one had to go. If he thought of somewhere or someone that wasn't where he'd intended to go, he'd either end up somewhere else entirely or splice himself in two or more pieces. The idea of it had been sickeningly derived from J.K. Rowling's _Harry Potter_ novels; the scientist who had created the Retropelet seemed to have thought it a horrifying enough concept to keep the users of his creation from not focusing properly. As he handed over the devices, he'd told the Mytax, 'One focus will keep you alive, but not so much as two foci.'

The second they were in the abyss seemed to last days for Baljeet. Having never experienced such travel methods before, he had no idea that they were literally frozen in time, though not in space. He kept his hand clung to Phineas' for dear life. Fear gripped his throat like a vice. Baljeet was unsure if he was truly alive or if he was dead and now experiencing what the fabled realm of Rakuen was like. (For those who do not know, Rakuen is what the Gonarish people call the 'Vault of Souls.' There preside all of the souls, both evil and good, that were deemed worthy of spectral life until the end of time. There they live on as Spectre; the living souls of dead bodies).

Suddenly, at the end of the travel, the Retropelet pressed the oxygen from the lungs of its passengers and spewed them out onto hard, wet pavement. The device shrieked in protest and closed itself up, falling on the ground aside Phineas as if it had never been touched. Both men slowly pulled themselves up and gasped for air.

Phineas blinked his eyes and scanned his surroundings. He couldn't see much, as his vision had blurred from both lack of oxygen and the impact with the road. Rain was falling around them, and the air was chilly. He picked himself up and staggered about for a bit. Light flared up behind him; Phineas stooped down, grabbed Baljeet by the shoulders, and dashed out of the way of an oncoming vehicle. One thing was for certain, and that was that they were no longer in Tibet.

"Watch yourself!" Baljeet hissed a little, breaking away from Phineas' grasp and looking hard at the road. Phineas did nothing to prevent his friend from complaining. It had been his fault, after all, that they'd landed in the center of a two-lane road. "Where did you land us?"

"I'm not sure," Phineas admitted. He continued to look around. The area around him was grey and cloudy. Raindrops were falling from the sky in light sheets, coating the earth with a layer of water. Mud leaked into drains along the streets. A few cars drove by at approximately forty miles per hour. Trees reached up on either side of the street, trying to touch the thunderclouds with their branches. One lone road sign stood a couple hundred yards to their left; it was a deep neon green colored sign with white letters. Phineas ran closer to it so that he could better discern what they read. "Baljeet! Baljeet, come quick!"

"What?!" Baljeet exclaimed, scampering along after his friend as best as he could in the slippery muck. "What do you see? Where are we?"

"Read for yourself, my friend," Phineas said, a smile spreading warmly across his face. It was the first time in exactly a year that the man had smiled genuinely out of happiness. The cold in his eyes was tainted with the foreign warmth of hope. Baljeet looked from his friend's uncanny smile to the sign looming above their heads.

"Ah," Baljeet hummed contentedly. "Even the rain cannot hide your slight pleasure in seeing this."

"True, true," Phineas nodded, willing to let Baljeet have his moment. He started off past the sign eagerly. "I haven't felt this glad to see anything for a year."

The sign read, 'Danville: 20 MILES.'

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Ferb**

**Question: No more comments guys? Are we THAT mad at me?**

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	20. Midnight Ride

**And...more a comin'. -AJ **

* * *

Ferb

Ferb leapt into his car, pulled on his seatbelt, crammed his key into the ignition, and forced the gearshift into reverse. Lyla ran after him and slid into the passenger seat. He gave her a cross look as he backed the car out of the driveway. She pointed at the front of the car and gave him a stern look in return. Sighing, Ferb flipped on the lights. The law was still the law, even if he was in a hurry to find his brother.

"So you found him?" Lyla asked, licking her lips to rid them of the last traces of cake frosting.

"That depends; did you find a cupcake?" Ferb said, teasing a bit. She narrowed her eyes and tried to refrain from slight laughter. "Then there's your answer. I'd think you, of all people, wouldn't have to ask such questions."

"And what makes you say that?" she smiled, raising one thin eyebrow in curiosity. Ferb only continued to make himself a character of intrigue. She couldn't help but find him interesting.

"You're a secret agent," he replied, keeping his eyes locked on the wet road. "Funny, I don't remember it having rained earlier when Xhirxhti scried Phineas…how long has it been raining?"

"Oh, I don't know, it was raining when I woke up to see Agent P and Zerks…oh, however you say her name, making out in the middle of the road," Lyla said. "Speaking of which, why are we leaving at one in the morning?"

"Because for one, Isabella wouldn't let me leave over a scry message, and two, Xhirxhti would have my head for searching for him," Ferb returned. He turned the wheel quickly to move out of the development and onto the long road from Danville into the Tri-State Area. "Does that answer satisfy you?"

"Yes," she nodded. "Why are there so many trees along this road, eh?"

"Why do you ask so many questions, eh?" Ferb mocked a little. Lyla frowned and sat back into her seat. "Look, I'm sorry, I just really don't get you. You follow me around like I'm something of a spectacle to you."

"Perhaps it intrigues me that someone would go through such strange measures for a step-brother," she said.

Silence fell over them both. Ferb had no reply to that; he could go on for hours that Phineas felt like a real brother to him, but it would never cease to impress her. It suited him best to do as he preferred to do and stay silent. He drove along in silence, with the radio turned all of the way off and the heat on low. The only sound that could be heard was the pitter patter of rain on his windshield and the occasional squeak of the windshield wipers swiping across the glass in front of them. Soon, he came to realize that he'd taken a wrong turn somewhere.

"Blast it…" he muttered to himself.

"What was that?" Lyla said, turning to face him.

"I took a wrong turn somewhere," he sighed. He looked around for a road or even a driveway to give him somewhere to turn around. After checking to see that no one was coming behind him, he pulled off of the road slightly and put the car in park. He thrust his hand into the door-pocket on his side of the car, searching for a map. Nothing was even in the pocket. "Would you mind looking in the door-pocket and in the glove compartment for a map, please?"

"Right; on it," Lyla nodded. She, too, began to rummage around for a map. A good fifteen minutes later, neither of them had found so much as a GPS. Lyla looked up at Ferb and shrugged in apology. He leaned back into his chair and sighed, rubbing his hand over his face and stopping it at his mouth.

"So we're lost in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night," he concluded. Naturally, he didn't have to state this. Both of them knew it was true. Still, for a first time, the silence unnerved him. He'd never realized that about himself until now. Phineas had always filled the void when no one spoke, and it kept Ferb's soul at ease. Now, in the quiet of the rainfall and soft thunder rolls, he began to question his reason for having kept to himself all of these years. "Do you have any suggestions?"

"About?" Lyla blinked.

"Directions," Ferb groaned. "Do you have any suggestions about directions?"

"Oh," she said, her voice sounding a little shocked at the question. "Well, I'd say we keep going until we find somewhere to turn around. Unless you can just make a GPS or a map appear out of thin air."

"Aha!" Ferb exclaimed.

"What?" Lyla frowned. "You gonna keep driving now?"

"No, actually, I'm going to make a GPS out of almost thin air," Ferb smiled, surprised that he hadn't thought of using his powers. He rubbed his hands together, cracked his knuckles a little bit, and then flexed his fingers in and out a few times.

"Um, Ferb, in case you never took a physics class in high school," Lyla said slowly, "you can't make something out of nothing. It's physically impossible."

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that impossible is impossible?" Ferb chuckled. She cast him a confused look.

"I don't understand," she said.

"Anything is possible, in other words," he told her, smiling slightly. "If I believe I can make a GPS out of thin air, then I most certainly will be able to. My technopathic teacher taught me that when I was fourteen. That's how I came to be so good at using my powers."

"Your powers…" she breathed. "You're going to do it? Right here? Right now? In front of me?"

"Yes, yes I am," he nodded. "Just promise me one thing."

"What?" she asked, leaning a little closer.

"You can't tell a soul what you've seen," he said, giving her a serious look. He went to say something else, but Lyla leaned over further, grabbed him by the shoulders, and kissed him on the lips. Ferb didn't know how to react; clearly she wasn't thinking about the fact that he had a fiancé. He did his best to try and focus on that, but something about the moment held him there. Her lips parted from his slightly, and he pressed his back up against the chair.

"I-I'm sorry," she blushed. She pulled back away from him. "I shouldn't have done that."

Ferb swallowed and watched her settle back down into her seat. He didn't know what to do. The woman he'd met just a few months ago had just kissed him as if she loved him. His mind wandered back to Gretchen. For some reason, he felt slightly torn. Shaking his head, he tried to get the thought out of his head. He wasn't in love with Lyla; he loved Gretchen. After all, he wouldn't have proposed to Gretchen had he not loved her. Still, for some reason he suddenly felt compelled to love Lyla, too.

"Could you do me a favor and _not_ do that again," Ferb said quietly.

"Y-yeah," Lyla said nervously. She pulled a loose strand of hair behind her ear and looked away from him, most likely very embarrassed for having kissed him out of the blue. "A-anyways, you were making a, um, a GPS?"

"Right," Ferb nodded, clearing his throat. He focused on the parts of the car and thought about the process of building a GPS. His mind honed in on the individual parts and the separate functions that each thing did. As a young child, Ferb could remember wondering how he knew the things he did about technology. Finding out he had technopath powers had cleared up everything- he was born to do this.

Lyla looked back at him and watched him closely. On the outside, it wasn't apparent that he was doing anything. She couldn't see him doing anything. All of his power resided mostly in his mind; only the last few seconds, when the machine formed in front of their very eyes, was visible to anyone besides himself. Being a technopath was a mental power, much like Baljeet's mathematically-based Hej.

"Are you doing something?" Lyla whispered. Ferb nodded.

"Just watch," he told her. The pieces then flew out of nowhere and pressed together in less than ten seconds. He grabbed it out of the air and smiled. "There you have it- a GPS. Now, show me how to get from here back to Danville."

The GPS mapped out a route for them to take back to Danville, and Ferb had Lyla quickly jot it down. After she was finished, he let go of the GPS, letting it float back into the air. He blew gently on it, which caused it to shake a little, and then disperse back into the car pieces it had begun as.

"Ah, I see what you did there," Lyla laughed.

"Hey, if I can fix it, I can do what I wish with it," Ferb replied, suppressing his laugh a little. "Now, what instructions do we have first on our list?"

"We need to make a legal U-turn," she said, reading it straight off of the paper in her lap.

"Right," Ferb nodded. He flicked the group of car parts, making them go back to where they belonged. Lyla watched this with extreme interest. Ferb chuckled to himself and put the car back into drive. He switched on his left turn signal to indicate he was getting back onto the road. After one car passed by, he drove back up onto the blacktop and made his way down the road, picking up his speed to forty, the posted speed limit. "We should be back in Danville in no time."

"Yep," Lyla replied, sighing and sitting back. They rode on in silence for a few minutes, not exchanging any words. It would have remained silent, too, if Lyla hadn't sat up quickly and squinted at something along the side of the road. "Say, what's that moving over there?"

"Over where?" Ferb asked, taking his eyes off of the road for a split second. Lyla shrieked, and before Ferb could ask why, he felt the tires of the car slip in a large puddle, and the brakes locked up. The car lurched forward, in the same direction as the thing Lyla had been looking at seconds before. Ferb reached over and blared the horn, but it was too late. The figure quickly shoved another figure out of the way and was hit full-force by the nose of Ferb's car. Whatever it was slumped over and fell limp into the mud. Both Lyla and Ferb threw their seatbelts off and jumped out of the car as quickly as they could. Ferb ran around the front of the car to see that he'd hit a person, a person clothed in a jet-black robe.

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Jamie**

**Question: To answer the odd question of the Lyla-Ferb kiss...I was caught up in the moment. For you guys...have I lost it?**

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	21. Lay's Bold Move

**Yeah, I really went crazy today.-AJ **

* * *

Jamie

Jamie was completely and utterly comfortable lying in her bed. The covers were soft, Matthew was holding her tightly, and the room was the perfect temperature for her. It was only fair that fate had to play a cruel hand in this and ruin her comfort. She woke up, blinking in the darkness. For a moment, she lay there, wondering what had woken her up. It didn't take her long to realize that it was nausea.

Groaning, she rolled out of bed and made for her bathroom. She flipped up the lid of the toilet and grabbed the sides of it. Her stomach tossed and turned, threatening to cause her to vomit. Bile filled up her mouth. The baby inside of her seemed to do a flip. She subconsciously placed her right hand underneath her belly as if to hold it up.

"Please stop…" she whimpered. Jamie took a deep breath and tried to take her focus off of her unsettled stomach. It didn't work; seconds later, she was spewing her guts out. She was surprised that her elongated sickness hadn't woken Matthew up. Roughly ten minutes passed before she felt the nausea leaver her. Ever so shakily, she stood up and flushed the toilet and commenced to wash herself off and rinse out her mouth. She pulled down the towel and dried off her face.

"You just can't catch a break, can you little sister?"

Jamie removed the towel from her face and tried to keep her breathing steady. It was one thing for her older brother, Legolas, to hate her; it was another for him to join the alliance that her mother despised in order to kill her. Fortunately enough for her, he couldn't kill her in their own house. Their mother didn't know about his alias, Quisling. She turned and faced him with a sour look on her face.

"What do you need, Lay?" she asked, her voice icy, though shaky. He stepped towards her and looked at her stomach. "Legolas Flynn, answer me!"

"Something bothering your stomach, sister?" he chuckled. Jamie looked down at the slight bulge around her midsection and then cast him a poisonous look. "If you are pregnant, you don't look much so."

"I asked you, what do you need?" she said, clenching her teeth together. The smell of his blood was potent. It called to her, and for some reason, she felt she needed it. Jamie held her ground, though, trying her best not to lunge for his soft neck. "If there isn't anything you need, please leave my bathroom now."

"Would you let me kill you?" he laughed. "That's what I _really_ need."

"No," she whispered back harshly. "I would never let you kill me. My children need me to live."

"Funny, how you treasure living for your children and not for yourself," he said, seeming slightly amused at the statement. He pulled out a long, sharp katana and twirled it around a bit. "Should I have them killed first?"

"THAT'S IT!" Jamie shrieked. She felt her fangs lower down below her other teeth. Ordinarily, attacking him would have been against her morals, but he'd just crossed a line when he'd threatened her children. She lurched for him, mouth wide open to catch onto his flesh. He tried to move out of the way, but she caught onto his upper arm and sank her teeth into it.

"Get off of me!" he cried. He swung his katana in her direction and brought it to her cheek. The blade sliced through her skin, leaving a long gash across it. Blood seeped out of it and began to trickle down her neck. She yanked his arm out of her grasp and forcefully threw him on the floor.

"Tho nhai tsugua mha aedae!" Jamie spat. Legolas furrowed his brow.

"Watch me," he growled. "I'll harm your children, your pathetic mate, and then you. I'll harm you all. No, I'll kill you all."

"You would be wise to watch your words, brother," Jamie spat. His blood was still in her mouth, dripping from her fangs and running along her teeth. It tasted good, to her, and she wished that he'd give her the chance to bite him again; oh, how she longed for the salty warmth of his blood to run across her tongue. Never before had she embraced this nature in herself.

"And you would be wise to stay away from me," he shot back, sitting up and holding his arm where she'd bitten him. "I don't want your Lesser Vampri filth to rub off on me."

"To think that you serve a Vampri mistress," Jamie responded, huffing at his disgust with her own species. "You sound more two-faced than Zaphod Beeblebrox."

"Who?" Lay blinked.

"Never mind," Jamie shook her head dismissively. "You clearly have never read that book. Not that you know how to read in the first place…"

She walked over to her older brother and looked down at him. He narrowed his eyes and glared up at her with a fire in his eyes that told her being so close to him was unsafe. That didn't matter to her; she picked him up by the scruff of his neck and pressed him up against the wall.

"P-put me d-down," he gasped, trying to breathe while she held onto his neck so tightly. He pulled a gun out from behind his back and pressed it up into her ribs. "I won't hesitate to pull the trigger."

"I can snap your neck before you do," she returned. Her grip tightened. He pressed his finger to the trigger, ready to fire a bullet into her lungs. "Try me."

"I think I will," Lay grinned evilly. He pressed the trigger back. Jamie let out a yelp and dropped her brother on the floor. She staggered back, grabbed onto a towel on the rack behind her, and fell to the floor, pressing a hand to her chest. Blood seeped through her fingers. "You see, the difference between you and I, Jamie, is that you value life; I do not."

"L-Legolas…" Jamie stammered, holding a hand out to her brother. He stooped down, slid the gun down into her open hand, and pressed it up against her chest.

"If you don't die of this, you can be sure that I'll make sure you die soon," he smiled, laughing a little. She narrowed her eyes and clenched her teeth tightly, wanting so badly to kill him on the spot. He stepped away from her and stood with his back facing the doorway. "Help! Help! Jamie's done shot herself!"

It only took a second for Xhirxhti and Matthew to both run in the room and examine the scene. Jamie tried to pick herself up, but pain swelled up in her chest and she let out an involuntary scream.

"Jamie, what did you do?!" Xhirxhti exclaimed. Perry entered behind them and pushed them both out of the way. He dropped down on the floor and scooped her up in his arms.

"Baby girl, what have you done?" Perry asked, pressing his hand to her cheek. Jamie's hand went up to his and held it there.

"You'd never believe me," she murmured, her voice wavering. Her eyes wandered to look at Lay, who was smirking a little while his face was unseen. Perry followed her gaze and looked up at Legolas. He looked back to Jamie. She nodded. "There was nothing I could do to stop him."

"Hang on, Jamie, we'll sort this out," Perry said gently. He passed her to Xhirxhti, who had also knelt down aside her. He stood up and grabbed Legolas by the skin of his neck. "You!"

"Sh-she did it to herself!" Legolas exclaimed. He pointed an accusatory finger at her limp body. "I swear to you, she was the one that pulled the trigger."

"Legolas, no one accused you of-" Xhirxhti began, but Perry threw him on the floor and shoved his left foot into his chest.

"Tell your mother who you really are," Perry growled, narrowing his eyes at Legolas. The boy shivered and cast a fearful eye towards his mother. Xhirxhti gave her husband a confused look. "Go, on, tell her!"

"Tell me what?" Xhirxhti blinked. She turned her gaze to her son.

"If that is how you choose to roll the dice, Perry Flynn," Legolas said, annunciating his father's name. He pulled a second gun out and pointed it at his sister. Perry removed his foot and let the boy stand up. "You're regretting choosing a favorite now, aren't you?"

"What ails you, boy?" Xhirxhti asked, her voice quivering. "Please tell me you don't mean to kill her!"

"Oh, but I do," he chuckled. "Dad is right in saying that you don't truly know me for me; I go by a new name now- the name my mistress was so kind to bestow on me, which is Quisling. She has promised me the ability to murder my sister in turn for private information about my family."

"I would have never thought that my own son would become a slave to that she-devil," Xhirxhti said quietly, but with a hint of hurt and anger in her words. Perry put a hand to her shoulder.

"I will be back if she isn't dead…" Legolas, or rather, Quisling, said icily. He turned, threw open the window, and hastily leapt out of it into the wet night. Cold, early March air blew through the open window, spraying a little bit of rain in with it. Matthew hurriedly closed it and came over to see if Perry or Xhirxhti needed help with Jamie. Perry lifted her up off of the ground and brought her into their bedroom. He laid her down on the bed and stroked her forehead gently.

"Xhirx, is there anything you can do?" he pleaded. She nodded a little and placed one hand on Jamie's shoulder.

"Matthew, would you go and find me an anirav blossom, please?" she asked, turning quickly to him. He dipped his head and sprinted off. She returned her attention to Jamie, who was taking in air in deep draughts. Perry handed her a cloth, which she took quickly and pressed onto Jamie's ribcage to stanch the blood flow. Her eyes couldn't seem to believe what she'd seen, and her ears also felt mislead. "How could he…?"

"I honestly don't know, Xhirx," Perry sighed. "I asked the same thing about a year ago when it was _he_ that subjected me to torture."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she blinked, not angry with him, but all the more confused about his motives.

"I couldn't bear to break a mother's heart," he told her quietly. She nodded slowly and leaned into him. _Jamie would heal_, she thought, _but my heart would not_.

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Perry**

**Question: Am I too mean to Jamie? **

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	22. Tempting Fate

**You may thank my fifth period teacher for giving us practically nothing to do. -AJ **

* * *

Perry

There wasn't much to say about Jamie's predicament. She'd been shot, yes, but she wasn't fading from the world. Perry watched as Xhirxhti did her best to do a little aid with her precious 'Lirpa' flower. She pressed the leaves on the wound and had Matthew cook the petals and nectar to a liquid consistency which she could then give to Jamie as a medicinal drug. The anirav would help her; Perry knew that from experience. He didn't doubt its healing power, and he felt it right that Xhirxhti would call such a plant a 'Lirpa' or 'Healer.' Still, when she'd retired to their bedroom for the night, he'd called up Doctor Svinski to examine her.

The scientist showed up as quickly as possible, which was, in all honesty, around a minute and a half after Perry had called. He entered the room with an air of intrigue. It was true that Svinski had witnessed nearly all of Jamie's life struggles; Perry didn't doubt that this had caused the man to be intrigued by her current predicament (which he never had to verbalize, as Svinski's Hej abilities permitted him to know pretty much anything medically).

"Jamie Flynn," Svinski hummed, looking at her with an expression of deep pity. "She can never have a good day, can she?"

"I'm afraid not," Perry sighed. Svinski watched as the girl turned her head slightly and smiled weakly at her father. Perry reached over and grabbed one of her hands, holding it tightly. "How you doing, baby girl?"

"I'm thirsty…" she admitted, averting her gaze. Svinski's expression darkened.

"Is something wrong?" Perry asked, looking up to the scientist with pleading eyes. He knew when Svinski sensed something bad. The man was not a master of masking his emotions. Perry watched as he took a deep breath and gently touched her right temple with his fingers.

"It isn't water she thirsts for…" he said quietly. Svinski received a sideways glance from Jamie. "I can see it in her eyes, and I can sense it from her aura. She craves blood."

"Would it be right to satisfy it?" Perry frowned, only thinking in concern for his daughter.

"That is indeed a tricky question to answer, Perry Flynn," Svinski said, his voice inflecting at the end a little. "We both know that satisfying her tongue with it will cause her to want it more, even when she does not crave it for the purpose of feeding her unborn child. Granted, I know that an unborn Lesser Vampri can die if not properly nourished with blood."

"Jamie lived!" Perry insisted. "She lives despite the fact that Xhirxhti drank _no_ blood whatsoever!"

"There are two reasons she survived that I know of," Svinski said pointedly. "The first is that Xhirxhti is a Kyea and had the strength to suffer giving her own blood to her during the pregnancy, which meant Jamie took her mother's own blood while still unborn. However, I believe your insistent begging to Eclipse is what saved her life. The Vampri mistress found a possible ally in Jamie, so she saved her life."

"So I do owe that demon…" Perry said, cursing silently under his breath.

"Yes, that you do," Svinski nodded. "I approve of your valiant resistance, though. Very few have the will to keep from giving in to her. She needs to be taught a valuable lesson."

"Anyways, should I, or should I not, give Jamie blood?" Perry said, trying to avoid any more conversation about Eclipse. The scientist bounced on his ankles a little bit, seeming to be having difficulty in finding a good answer for him.

"How about I examine the state of the baby?" he said finally, pulling out a stethoscope. "If I think it needs blood in order to live, then I will say yes. If I don't think it needs it, then I will say no. Does that work for you?"

"Yes," Perry said. He watched as Svinski pressed the stethoscope up against Jamie's stomach. She winced a little and told him that the metal was cold. Svinski laughed a little. Jamie returned his laugh with a small smile. Perry had to give it to the man; he knew how to keep people calm in situations like these, when things looked rough.

"Is he okay?" Jamie asked, looking pointedly at Svinski.

"He?" Svinski questioned. "It is a boy?"

"Well," Jamie blushed. "I don't actually know. It's just a guess, I suppose. I would feel weird calling him, or her, an 'it.' It'd be just like calling you an 'it,' would it not?"

"I do suppose that makes sense," Svinski laughed. "He or she has been a living creature from the very beginning, no? We mustn't make it seem like this was not the case."

Jamie smiled again. Perry wondered what was going through her head. She seemed so calm to be in a circumstance such as this. It was unnerving him just to mention the baby's existence. He wondered if perhaps it was her unusually soft and gentle nature that led her to be this way or if it was just maternal instinct. Either way, he still couldn't wrap his mind around what she was portraying emotionally.

"Well, I have some good news and some bad news," Svinski said, standing back up to his full height. Jamie subconsciously moved a hand to her stomach. "The baby is doing quite well, however, if you do _not_ satisfy Jamie's thirst for blood, the baby will continue to draw blood from her."

"Wait, wait, wait, continue?" Perry blinked.

"Yes, continue," Svinski said, dipping his head a little. "Since he or she is currently very small, the fact that it has probably been taking blood from Jamie's system ever since conception is a little worrying. Neither can survive without sufficient blood. The life endangered here, is, coincidentally, Jamie's."

"You have _got_ to be joking," Jamie sighed, leaning back into her pillow.

"You're gonna be fine, baby girl," Perry told her. He turned to look at Svinski. "How am I going to go about this? Can I still give her transfusions? Just like I did when she was a baby?"

"That will not be strong enough," Svinski shook his head. "She is going to eventually need more blood than you can supply her."

"Then what the crap do I do?!" Perry exclaimed. His chest felt tight and his heart felt heavy. "I can't just let her die!"

"What other advice can I give you?" Svinski sighed. "You yourself would die donating the blood she needs. Unless you can find a way to provide enough blood to support her for six months, which is impossible unless you let her drink everyone she comes into contact with, there is nothing I can truly tell you. I'm sorry."

He left Perry there without another word. Perry looked over to Jamie and sighed. She slipped out of the bed and walked over to him. For just having heard that she could die for a third time in her life, she seemed surprisingly calm. She reached out her hand and touched the side of his arm to comfort him. Unable to contain himself any longer, Perry grasped her and pulled her into his chest, holding her in his arms as gently as he could in the given the circumstances.

"Shh, it's going to be alright, Daddy," she whispered.

"How am I supposed to keep you alive _this_ time?" Perry cried.

Jamie fell silent. He knew that she had no good answer for that. How could she, after all? It was against her morals to drink the blood of others. To her, it was a last second defense mechanism. He pressed her body up against his more and tried to control himself. Perry had to trust that Jamie could hold out. After all, she'd held out the other two times that Svinski had predicted her death. Why would this time prove to be any different?

"Well, you certainly can't make blood just replenish itself over and over again," she sighed. Perry's eyes snapped open.

"Wait, what?" he blinked. "Repeat that."

"I said that you certainly can't make blood just replenish itself o-"

"THAT'S IT!" Perry shouted. He picked her up and spun her around one time, happy to have an idea of what to do at last. "Matthew might know a spell that can take one ounce of my blood and multiply it into enough for you to drink in six months' time. You're a _genius_, Jamie!"

"I…am?" she asked, frowning.

"Yes, yes you are," Perry grinned. "You're going to live. You always do. Something always happens in your favor."

"O-kay, Daddy," she laughed a little. "If you say so."

"I do," Perry returned happily. He let go of her and spun around in a few circles, glad to have outsmarted fate. "It's the most brilliant idea you've ever had, and it will most certainly save your life. There'll be no deaths this year, I can promise you that!"

"What about Lay?" Jamie tilted her head. "Didn't he vow to kill me?"

"Ah, what can he do?" Perry said, waving the thought away like a bothersome fly or gnat. "Your brother is all talk and no game. He can't even aim, for Heaven's sake, I've seen the boy handle a gun. He was simply lucky that he had you where he did, that was all. He thinks there will be bloodshed; there will be no such thing! I'm as sure as my name is…"

"Da-ad," Jamie said, trying to suppress her giggle.

"You sly dog!" Perry joked, collecting her in his arms and messing up her hair with one hand. "You caught me monologue-ing."

"What?" Jamie asked, her voice raising a little in pitch. "No, not me. I wouldn't catch you doing _that_."

"Oh, but you did," Perry chuckled. He released her from his grasp and waved for her to lay down. "Now, you, madam, should get some sleep."

"Yes, mom," Jamie kidded. Perry shot her a stern look just to mess with her. She got back into her bed and snuggled up in the covers. "When you see my husband, would you kindly tell him his wife misses him dearly?"

"Certainly," Perry nodded. He smiled and walked out of the room. Things were going to get better, no matter what he had to do to fix things. His family was going to stay alive and stay together. Even if he had to die to ensure that.

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Phineas**

**Question: As a father-daughter relationship goes, how cute are Jamie and Perry on a scale of 1-10?**

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	23. An Unusual Reunion

**Okay, last I finished today. (Yes, I wrote more on a Ferb chapter). -AJ **

* * *

Phineas

The next thing Phineas knew, he was staring into the mud and wet grass. He couldn't quite remember what had hit him, all he knew was that whatever it was, it had definitely caught him by surprise. Water swirled around his cheek, sloshing about. Phineas could see three sets of shoes standing near him. Lights, presumably from a car's headlights, were shining across the figures. Rain was still falling, as he could feel it drumming on his cloak and running down the tip of his nose. He could hear voices, three of them. Two of these were familiar, but the last was foreign to him.

"Yes, I know you want to know why I was walking around out here at close to midnight, but I think that we should at least make sure he is okay," said Baljeet. Phineas remembered his travelling companion all too well. The next voice, however, he struggled to find an owner to.

"Who _is_ your mysterious travelling partner?" a female questioned. It wasn't Isabella, or any of Perry's family members. Nor was it his mother's voice, or either of his grandmothers. Gretchen, he was sure, didn't own the voice he heard.

"You do not know?" Baljeet asked. Silence fell over them. "Ferb, I think you of all people should know…"

"Me?" Ferb started. Someone sat down next to him and went to pull his hood off. Phineas reached out and grabbed the hand suddenly, causing them all to gasp. Whomever's arm he'd grasped, they were trembling from the cold.

"Are you okay?" Baljeet's voice said, wavering a little.

"Is that you?" Phineas whispered.

"Yes, it is I," Baljeet affirmed. "You will never guess who we have just run into. Your brother. Ferb."

Ever so slowly, Phineas pulled himself up into a seated position with Baljeet's help. The man eased him up against a hard, cool surface; Phineas assumed that this was the car from which the light was coming. A sharp pain ran up his side, screaming at him to readjust his legs.

"Gah…" Phineas said, trying his best not to swear under his breath. He pressed his left hand to his right side and clenched his teeth. Baljeet looked under Phineas' hood and frowned.

"What hurts?" he asked. Phineas pointed to where it hurt, not willing to say anything. "Alright, sit still and I will sort this out."

Phineas watched as Baljeet felt up and down his side, and he made it a point not to react every time a painful flare shot up his leg or torso. It took a good while for Baljeet to make a full assessment of what had happened, but it wasn't too long before he told Phineas that he'd most likely had his hip fractured.

"How the heck do you expect me to walk to Danville like this?" Phineas spluttered. Baljeet sighed.

"We can take you in Ferb's car," Baljeet told him. Phineas turned his head ever so slightly. "Ferb, could you do me a favor and help him up?"

"Okay…" Ferb said slowly. Phineas then felt a strong arm lift him up from under his left shoulder. Baljeet picked up Phineas' right side. Both pulled him over to the back of the car and gently placed him on the back seat. Ferb took this moment to thrust Phineas' hood off. Shocked by such an action, Phineas turned to face his brother. Neither spoke. They simply stared at one another, unable to respond.

"Ah, yes," Baljeet said, clearing his throat a little. "Ferb, did I forget to mention that my, erm, 'mysterious travelling partner' is Phineas?"

"Impossible…" Ferb breathed. "He was in Tibet nine hours ago."

"And yet…" Phineas said, unblinking.

"Yet, here you are," Ferb murmured. Phineas didn't know what to say to his stepbrother. In all honesty, he wanted to hug him tightly and beg for his forgiveness. He didn't know if it would be welcome, though. "I don't know whether I want to slap you…or hug you."

"I would prefer not to be slapped," Phineas replied quietly. "Granted, I practically deserve it."

"You're darn right," Ferb said, almost laughing. He leaned forward and enveloped his brother in a hug. "But I'm glad you came back."

"Can you forgive me for leaving?" Phineas asked, returning the hug as best he could without hurting himself any further. "I know it's a lot to ask, but I regret the very decision to have abandoned you all."

"Of course I forgive you," Ferb said, letting go a little and looking Phineas in the eyes. "Want to know why?"

"Why?" Phineas frowned.

"Because I'm your brother," Ferb said gently. "If I can't forgive you, I can't forgive anyone. There's no one I'd rather have around than you, Phineas. You know that. Ever since the day we met…I've pretty much known that I had a best friend for life."

"You're too kind," Phineas said, choking back a sob. "I've been a complete jerk…to you…to Isabella…to my kids…to…to Perry…"

"I know, I know," Ferb nodded. He turned to Baljeet and pointed to the front seat of the car. "Would you mind taking us to the nearest hospital? I think I'll sit back here with Phineas."

"Okay," Baljeet hummed. He hopped into the driver's seat and adjusted the mirrors to his preference. Ferb jumped in the back and sat on the floor next to Phineas. The female swung herself into the passenger seat and smiled awkwardly at Baljeet. "Here we go, I guess."

The car lurched forward and everyone clung to their seats as Baljeet performed a U-turn. The woman crossly told him that he'd done so illegally, but Baljeet said that laws came after the safety of others in the vehicle. Phineas was in need of medical attention, so he wasn't technically in the wrong to do a U-turn where he had.

"Who is she?" Phineas asked Ferb in a whisper.

"That's Lyla," he said, sounding somewhat amused when he said her name. "She's an agent for the Canadian O.W.C.A. who's worked with Perry a few times. I ran into her on one of my searches for you, and she's stuck to me like glue ever since."

"Hmm, sounds like she likes you, bro," Phineas chuckled.

"Did you know you sound a lot different than when you disappeared?" Ferb noted. Phineas gave him a questioning look. "Your voice; it sounds completely different."

"Like, are you trying to say it got deeper?" Phineas frowned.

"No, not deeper," Ferb shook his head.

"…higher?" Phineas winced.

"No!" Ferb objected. "Not your pitch, your tone. Like, when you were in Hawaii, or, should I say, Ostrov Geroyev, your voice sounded more optimistic and cheerful. Now it sounds a little sadder; melancholy, I daresay."

"Ah, yes," Phineas sighed. "Baljeet pointed that out as well. It's amazing how one mistake can change a person…"

"What do you mean?" Ferb blinked.

"The reason I left was because of something that happened on Malam after you and the platypi left with Perry," Phineas said, rubbing his ear a little. "I accidentally incinerated nearly everything in sight. Only those who could withstand such a powerful demonstration of Hej survived. I didn't stick around too long; I immediately travelled by fire to Nepal."

"Oh," Ferb said. He didn't seem to have a response to that.

"I know what you're thinking," Phineas said, chewing on his lip a little. "I should move past it, right?"

"Well, yes, eventually," Ferb nodded slightly.

"Baljeet said that, too," Phineas remarked. Silence fell between the two brothers for a moment. "Say, how is everything?"

"Not good," Ferb shook his head. "Isabella is stressed that she can't find you; she insists that you were lost in the middle of the ocean. Perry's been kicked out of the house by Xhirxhti…"

"What on _Earth_ did he do for her to kick him out?" Phineas asked, shocked by such news. He'd never known Xhirxhti to be rash with Perry; the most he'd ever seen her do was argue with him.

"He…well, he sort of got Jamie pregnant," Ferb answered, looking away awkwardly.

"…okay, that was a sentence I never wanted to hear," Phineas shuddered. "So I can pretty much guess how Jamie's doing…"

"Yeah…" Ferb said, biting his lower lip. "You're pretty much coming home at a bad time for the platypus clan. I still can't believe that Xhirxhti just threw him out like she did. Matthew took the news pretty calmly. Jamie…she's a puzzle."

"Has she ever been a piece of cake to understand?" Phineas chuckled.

"Nope," Ferb smiled. "At least we know where Omega gets it from."

"Omega…?" Phineas tilted his head.

"Oh!" Ferb realized. "Well, she was pregnant with him while we were in Ostrov Geroyev, remember?"

"Oh, yeah!" Phineas nodded vigorously. "Wow, the world's first living, breathing, Anhtraiemgai. And I'm assuming from your comment that he's a tad bit of a confusing character."

"Confusing is a mild word for Omega," Ferb huffed. "He's a year-old philosopher."

The conversation proceeded much like this the entire car ride to the hospital. Both brothers had news to share and stories to tell. Once they arrived at the hospital, however, Phineas was rushed inside for immediate medical attention while Ferb contacted Isabella to tell her that her husband had finally been found. It was told to him that she, along with Perry, Jamie, Xhirxhti, and Matthew, would be there within the hour.

Phineas, though, was this entire time resting in peace. Despite his injury, he finally felt as if something right had happened this year. He lay his head up against the pillow on his stretcher and closed his eyes, finally at peace.

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Ferb**

**Question: Do you guys want a spoiler? Hmm? Hmm? (I'll give it to you if you ask; scout's honor or however that goes). **

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	24. A Family As It Should Be

**Tada! -AJ **

* * *

Ferb

At that moment, Ferb could care less that he didn't have an umbrella to keep the never-ending rain from soaking him through to his underclothes. He was simply happy that he'd finally been able to see his brother. Now, he was stuck standing outside of a hospital in a rainstorm waiting for three more family members to show up. Isabella had told him it would be about an hour for them to get there, but Ferb was expecting her to speed. She should have them there in around thirty minutes from the call. It had been fifteen minutes since Ferb had called her, and he was already getting tired of the wait.

People scurried past him. Some were here on visitation; others were bringing in hurt or dying family members. Ferb made sure to stand out of the way so that he wouldn't obstruct anyone's path. He understood the need for these individuals to hurry about. Some cast him a curious glance, and others walked right past him, ignoring his presence.

Eventually, the rain slowed down to a slow drizzle. Ferb watched as the droplets of water fell from the sky and landed daintily in the puddles on the sidewalk, making it seem as if the water were performing some kind of elaborate dance. He smiled at this, happy to be able to enjoy the small things. Phineas had helped him to see them when they were much, much younger. Now that he'd gotten his stepbrother back, he could once again enjoy little moments such as this.

The night air was cool. Wind blew gently across the parking lot, making the water feel like ice against Ferb's bare cheeks. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared out into the distance. The all-too-familiar shape of Phineas and Isabella's car appeared about a mile off under the yellow glow of the highway lights. He waited patiently for her to turn into the parking lot, locate a space, and then hurry over to him with four anxious platypuses running behind her. She ran straight up to him and gave him a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered. He nodded and followed her inside, holding the door for them all. They went up to the receptionist, asked for Phineas' room number, and hurried off to see the long-lost family member. Once they arrived at his door, one of the nurses came out and asked that they wait a while. Ferb nodded and leaned up against the wall.

"How did you find him?" Perry asked, holding a shivering Xhirxhti close to himself.

"Embarrassingly enough, I kind of ran over him with my car," Ferb sighed. He nodded to Xhirxhti. "When did you get accepted back into the family dynamic?"

"About three hours ago," Perry said indignantly. "A lot has happened in a span of three hours. Jamie's been shot, Matthew cooked a flower, and Lay announced his family betrayal."

"Qet nyx…" Xhirxhti mumbled.

"Say what?" Ferb and Isabella both blinked. Perry quickly informed them that she had only said, 'What a night.' The two nodded and went back to their waiting. Xhirxhti continued to murmur in Kyeaclae to her mate, probably unwilling to express anything in English in the company of Isabella or Ferb. She was still shaking despite the fact that Perry was holding her as close as he could and the heat was on.

Isabella nervously chewed on her fingernails. Unlike Ferb, she hadn't ever seen Phineas' disappearance as abandonment. To her, it had always been that he'd been taken captive or lost during the Malam incident. Ferb hadn't the heart to explain to her that her hunch was incorrect, though; he felt that it would be better that she had assumed his disappearance was unintentional. He shoved his hands into his pockets and turned his gaze away from her.

The doctor exited the room and walked over to face Ferb. He tapped him on the shoulder and waited. Ferb lifted his eyes up to look upon the man standing in front of him. He was of average build, was clean-shaven, and was wearing the typical dress of a doctor; blue scrubs with closed-toe black shoes. A stethoscope hung about his neck, as well as a blue face mask. His head was covered with something, which Ferb took to be a hair covering of some sort.

"You're Ferb Fletcher?" the doctor asked. "You brought him in?"

"Yes, yes I did," Ferb nodded. He pointed a thumb at the worried-looking group of five that stood across the hall from him. "His family wishes to see him."

"Ah, yes," the doctor hummed. "That will be fine. I do have a question, first, though, if you don't mind answering this for me."

"Alright," Ferb sighed.

"Where has he been in the past few weeks?" the doctor questioned. "He seems to have developed a mild fever, but we can't find a reason for him to be running such high temperatures as he has."

"Oh, yes," Ferb chuckled. "That's no fever, sir, I can assure you, his temperature is quite fine. He runs…well, he maintains naturally high temperatures. You shouldn't worry yourself or anyone else with such a matter."

"You're certain of this?" the doctor blinked.

"One hundred percent," Ferb smiled softly. "Now, I believe he's been away from his family far too long; longer than you would know."

"If you're sure," the doctor said skeptically. He opened the door and waved for them to walk in. Ferb waited for the other five to enter before he nodded to the doctor and followed in behind them. Isabella was the first to lose all manner of self-control.

"Phineas!" she cried. She ran over to the bed her husband was lying on and practically threw herself onto him. It seemed as if this hurt Phineas a little, but he didn't seem to care one way or another. They embraced one another, and shared multiple kisses. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"I thought the same," he returned. Perry hopped up next to them and shook his head. "If it isn't the master of all things dangerous himself."

"If you ever disappear again, I swear I'll kill you, Phineas," Perry laughed. He gently punched Phineas in the left shoulder and gave him a slight hug. "You scared us all to death."

"That was never my intention," Phineas frowned.

"We know, baby," Isabella said, caressing his face in her hands. She crawled up next to him and wrapped her arms around him. Tears began to stream down both of their faces. "We've missed you so much."

"I've missed you all, too," he whispered back to her. Xhirxhti, Matthew, and Jamie all came and gave Phineas a hearty welcome home. Ferb looked over this spectacle with wonder on his face. He almost felt like an intruder. As he stood in the doorway, he felt a hand light on his shoulder. He turned to see who it was and found Baljeet's face staring back at him.

"You seem a little lost," Baljeet smiled. Ferb sighed.

"If you wish to talk, can we do it outside in the hall?" Ferb requested. Baljeet nodded and led him out into the hall. Lyla had shown up again and was staring at the white floor without an expression on her face. Ferb returned to his previous stance of leaning up against the wall.

"I know you have questions," Baljeet said, looking into Ferb's eyes. The British man looked away, not willing to lead Baljeet on. He continued nonetheless. "I know this because I had questions, too, when I first found him. Who would not- he was dressed as a Mytax."

"Is this something I should know as a disguise?" Ferb said quietly.

"No," Baljeet shook his head. "Apparently he has secretly been serving Eclipse since he was a young boy."

"I never took him to be a traitor to what is good and right in the universe," Ferb mused. He shifted uncomfortably. Ferb didn't wish to think of his brother as a villain. "Phineas was always a light and optimistic child."

"I know this just as well as you do," Baljeet affirmed. "However, his optimism has dwindled under the slavery that he has been subjected to. Eclipse promised to never harm his family if he would but serve her for life. At the time, she'd meant his parents; Candace; you. Now, it means she will not touch anyone blood-related to him or related by marital status. This, naturally, leaves Perry's family out of the dynamic, but still, he does it to protect _you_."

"What a brave soul he is…" Ferb said in a voice that was barely audible. "Few would put themselves under such mental torture for a step-sibling."

"It is indeed a remarkable and honorable thing," Baljeet admitted, smiling a little. "I still do not agree that he should have hid such knowledge from his family, though. You may have been able to help him through it."

"What is done is done," Ferb said, working his jaw a little in thought.

"Ah, yes," Baljeet hummed. "I am just glad that he is returned home safely. His original plan to cross the land bridge was suicidal. The Retropelet has saved his life, even if not his wholeness."

"Hey, you can't fully blame me- he was the one wearing all black and walking on the side of the highway on a rather rainy and moonless night," Ferb chuckled. He and Baljeet shared a laugh at this. "Well, my friend, now that I know that Phineas is in good hands and is with his family, I intend to return home."

"What about her?" Baljeet raised an eyebrow and pointed a thumb to Lyla. "Will she be accompanying you?"

"She…" Ferb started, but then he stopped. He didn't want to risk another possible tender moment from her, but he felt the guilt of leaving her behind weighing down on him like a heavy chain about his neck. She looked up at him blankly and waited for his response. "She may come with me if she so chooses."

"If you don't mind," she said, blushing a bit. Baljeet cast each of them a confused look. "It was nice meeting you, Doctor Baljeet."

"You, too, Lyla," Baljeet said quietly. Ferb turned on his heel and headed to the parking lot with Lyla trailing behind him. Once they'd made it outside, he told her to wait on the curb while he drove the car around. When she wasn't looking, he crossed his fingers and hoped for a quiet ride home.

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Jamie**

**Question: Is there going to be some Ferb-Lyla tension?**

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	25. The Danger in Question

**I have two updates for you today :) -AJ **

* * *

Jamie

Two months had passed in which her father's plan had worked smoothly. Jamie's mother hadn't found out about her detrimental situation, and Matthew was doing a fine job of multiplying the blood supply based off of one quart of her dad's blood. It was strange having to conceal such desperate measures from her mother, but what could Jamie do? Her mother was a Kyea, and to Kyea blood was a defiling substance. It would only put her mother into a frantic state to know that Jamie had to drink roughly eight quarts of blood a day. Yes, things were simple and calm at the moment.

Matthew walked over to her and handed her a coffee mug. It was completely solid, naturally, to conceal its contents. She nodded and took it from him slowly, grimacing a little at the thought of coffee. Jamie didn't like coffee in the first place, but now that the mention of any real food was nauseating, it made her stomach turn just by imagining the mug's true purpose of containing coffee.

The potent scent of fresh blood wafted up from the small drinking hole in the lid. Jamie's eyes closed a little bit. Ever so badly did she want to have more than she was required; every living thing that passed her seemed to attract her. Matthew placed a hand on her arm and frowned a little. If only he knew her internal struggle, then he would understand that being close to her was a danger to his very life. Not wanting to hurt him, like her thirst called her to do, she quickly lifted the cup to her mouth and drank the thick, red liquid. Its salty, yet sweet, flavor passed over her tongue, leaving an irony taste between her teeth. Out of the corner of her eye, Jamie saw Matthew's face contort in disgust.

"Does it really taste that good?" he asked, trying to hide his malcontent. Jamie pulled the mug down from her bill and gave him an awkward sideways smile. He held a finger up and pointed to her face. "You, um, you got a little…a little blood right…right there…"

"Oh," Jamie replied. She licked around the edges of her bill and partially grinned at him. "It does. At least, it does to me. Does it bother you?"

"Just a little," he admitted. "But, only because of the way it makes you look at other people. It's like when you look at them you see a meal instead of another person. You don't think that, do you?"

"Oh, no, no!" Jamie shook her head, unwilling to imagine it then. "I mean, yes, I smell their blood and I want to drink it, but I could never consider another living creature a meal. That's just revolting!"

Jamie finished drinking the mugful of blood and set the cup down on the counter. He picked it up and walked over the sink to rinse it out. Tired of being in the kitchen, Jamie slid out of her chair and made her way over to the living area. Matthew followed behind her quickly. She laughed a little to herself; she loved it when he couldn't stand to be away from her, even when she was in the mood to drink blood. Zoe ran over to them and smiled wide.

"Jamie!" she exclaimed. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around Jamie's neck in a tight embrace. "Good morning, quintuplet sister of mine!"

"Morning, Zoe," Jamie laughed. Her sister pulled back a little and grinned some more. "What's got you in such a grand mood?"

"Oh, just everything! How are you feeling?" Zoe said. She reached down and patted Jamie's stomach a little. "Someone's getting big, he, he."

"Yeah," Jamie sighed, letting her sister's infatuation with her stomach slide for the moment. "Granted, he's a lot smaller than I thought he'd be…"

"You're just not used to a normal pregnancy," Zoe giggled. Jamie rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "What? Between the twin-sies and Omega, this is the most normal thing that's ever happened to you."

"True that," Jamie frowned. She looked down at her sister and wondered why she had to obsess over her pregnancies like she did. Still, she couldn't help but feel it was Zoe's way of supporting her as a sister. Zoe put her hands on both sides of Jamie's stomach and gently pressed a cheek up to her.

"You're so tense, Jamie!" she laughed. She rubbed Jamie's belly a little. "You need to relax. You'd feel so much better if you did."

"As if you know anything on the subject," Jamie chuckled.

"She doesn't…" Matthew said under his breath. "I know more than she does…"

"Touché," Jamie smiled. He chuckled to himself and made for their bedroom. Jamie watched her mate as he left; something seemed to be bothering him. She frowned, wanting to follow him, but was awoken from her thoughts by a gentle shaking.

"Jamie? You awake?" Zoe asked, her head cocked to the side slightly.

"Sorry," Jamie said, shaking her head. She pulled away from her sister slightly and tried to escape to her bedroom, but Zoe wouldn't have it.

"So, have you considered the names I suggested?" Zoe said. The pleading look on her face made Jamie laugh a little. She smiled at her and nodded.

"Of course I did," Jamie told her. "Liam's not really to my liking, but I do like Lexi. It's rather cute, in my opinion."

"What would you name a boy?" Zoe giggled. She pressed one hand onto Jamie's shoulder and gave her an inquisitive glare. "Surely you're not going to just be content with 'Baby X' until the day you go into labor. You've got to have something."

"Well, I think we've decided on the name Bartholomew," Jamie said quietly. "You know, after Dad."

"It's less unusual than Omega," Zoe joked. Jamie rolled her eyes. "C'mon, Jame-ster, you know I'm kidding. We all know you just named him that in spite of the Omega Project."

"Why not toy with the mind of the world's deadliest enemy?" Jamie smirked. "She practically deserves it, after trying to kill both me and him. She's plagued our family for far too long to deserve any niceties from us."

"You truly are our father's daughter," Zoe chuckled. "You shouldn't toy with fate too much, Jamie, you might end up dead."

"I'm not dead yet," Jamie sniffed. "I'd like to see Eclipse take bets on either me or Dad's death. She tries so hard, and yet, she can never seem to kill us."

"I think she's toying with you like cats and balls of yarn," Zoe frowned.

"She's simply a failure," Jamie returned.

"Bah!"

Both girls turned to see their father enter the room. He had somewhat of a sarcastic scowl on his face. Perry walked over next to them and gave them each a look that read, 'Don't make me laugh.' Zoe and Jamie shifted a little, unsure of what he'd say next.

"Nice to see you, too, Dad," Zoe nodded awkwardly.

"Do you honestly think someone like Eclipse can just simply fail?" Perry asked them both, looking from daughter to daughter slowly. "Or do you assume that she just means to play nasty games with us? Oh, no, no, my children! You're both very much so wrong. Eclipse is a cunning creature that cannot easily be outwitted. Underestimating her is a dangerous feat; imagining her as an immature villain who 'plays with her prey' is just as bad."

"If not either of those, then what?" Zoe then posed, seeming confident in her rebuttal. Perry turned to her with a completely serious look on his face now.

"Eclipse is your worst nightmare," Perry breathed. "She's always watching you; she waits for you to slip up. She tries to catch you when you're weakest, she tries to cut you at your heart center, and she tries to summon the deepest, darkest, depths of your very soul. She looks for evil in even the best of men. She searches for your downfalls, and when she finds them, she uses them against you, like arrows raining down from a battlement upon a field of unprepared, unarmed soldiers. Yes, sometimes her prey gets away unscathed, but this only makes her work harder. It isn't her failure or her will to torment you that causes this- it is a matter of the strength one has to fight against her.

"Girls, you must understand this one thing; Eclipse will try until she can no longer try to destroy our family and rip it to pieces. We have to persevere. We have to prove that Eclipse is not all-powerful. She is not! I know, I'm rambling, and yes, I know you probably don't care to hear this, but…"

"But what, Dad?" Jamie tilted her head to the right a little.

"In the near future, I am certain she plans to harm the family more than we are expecting," Perry said solemnly. "Be prepared, and be warned. I will speak no more on this matter today."

Turning on his heel, Perry exited the room without another word. Jamie and Zoe then knew that something was amiss. They looked at one another, unable to put their finger on what was bothering their father. Still, something seemed terribly wrong- and trust it, dear reader, that it was.

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**Next Chapter is...Xhirxhti **

**Question: Whoa, Perry- what was THAT all about?**

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	26. Kyea Quarreling

**Here's updatio number two! :) -AJ **

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Xhirxhti

Having to return to Nepoçie on such short notice was never something Xhirxhti loved nor planned. She walked briskly down the grand marble halls of her mother's palace in Paix, Amoyx with her green dress flowing wildly about her. It had been a while since she'd assumed her natural Kyea form, but she wasn't uncomfortable in the least. Her ankle-length, pencil-straight, white hair billowed behind her, almost blending in with her pale, almost translucent, skin. On her face, she wore an expression of frustration; her golden-brown eyes were fixated on her mother in the distance, her thin, black eyebrows were knit in concentration, and her perfect lips were scrunched tightly together in determination. She walked straight up to her mother's throne and stood at her full height- eight feet, six inches. Her mother turned to look at her with a blank face. Xhirxhti held up two fingers, her index and middle, on her right hand, brought them to her lips, twisted them out towards her mother, and then crossed them over her heart in the traditional Kyea greeting.

"Ainauhtil," she said firmly. Her mother copied the gesture.

"Ainauhtil, Lexolav, mha dyrx," the queen returned. Arven, for that was her name, stood up and walked over to her daughter slowly. She spoke to her in her own tongue. "It is good that you have come to me."

"Why have you called?" Xhirxhti narrowed her eyes a little. She only returned her words in Kyeaclae to keep her mother's cool. (If you had not guessed, their words have been translated for convenience).

"I wish to inform you that Saki, your benefactor; the one who saved you and your…mate…from certain death some years ago; is, indeed, dead," Arven replied coolly. "This means that you are once again under no protection in your filthy act of Dnalizaws."

"You intend to have me killed, then?" Xhirxhti asked, raising her eyebrows.

"No, I am giving you a warning and a single chance," Arven said hastily. "Either you will deny your family and come live in peace in Amoyx as one of us- your own kind- or, if you so poorly choose to do, you will stay away from this planet for the rest of your life to avoid death by dnalez. It is your choice, daughter."

"You have abandoned everything father stood for!" Xhirxhti spat, tears now streaming down her face. Arven stood back a little at the comment. "My father stood for equality and fair rights for every creature in this alterverse! But you- you, Mother, only intend to keep us in the same system as the Sylvxtyx nation!"

"How dare you insult my courts by comparing me to the enemy!" Arven roared. She stepped closer to her daughter and looked down into her eyes. "They are dogs who support the wicked Vampri!"

"And yet, you set up the same caste system as they do!" Xhirxhti shot back. "My father set up his government to free Amoyx from the bondage of inequality. Is that why you murdered him?"

Arven's visage turned white as a sheet. The blood had drained from her face, and fear was written in the pallor that took its place. She had clearly never told her daughter that she'd been the one to murder her father, and yet Xhirxhti knew. The Kyea queen's lip quivered, unable to respond in any way.

"Yes, I know it was you," Xhirxhti seethed. "I know you killed him to have the throne for yourself. You never liked his call for equality. You disagree with my choice of a husband because you cannot see any likeness between myself and Perry. You see him as nothing more than dirt. I can assure you, just because he is another race does not mean he is not equal to us."

"He's a mortal creature, Lexolav!" Arven shouted. She stood back up to her normal height and leaned over her daughter. Xhirxhti did not move, nor did she flinch at this motion. "Immortals and mortals cannot be together! He will die and you will live on! Do you learn nothing from those peasants?"

"He will not die!" Xhirxhti shrieked. Her mother narrowed her eyes at her.

"You speak as a fool would," she replied.

"I know he will not die," Xhirxhti said forcefully. "For as long as we've been husband and wife, I have been slowly adjusting his mortality. He should have been dead years ago. You cannot reverse what my powers have done, I am preserving him and creating immortality within him."

"What?!" Arven started. "Do you not know what that will do to him?! Lexolav, child, you will most certainly kill him! Sooner or later, you will see scars; scars that form the shapes of swirling lines. It will appear as if someone had taken a knife and drawn intricate swirls on his chest for a design piece. Your blood will corrode his skin; it will not save him from death. He will experience extreme pain, and you, my daughter, will experience great loss."

"You lie!" Xhirxhti cried. "He will live! You shall see!"

"Foolish child!" Arven huffed. "Your love blinds you! This is why the Kyea do not permit such foolish things as love. He will die, whether by this curse you have placed upon him or by the hands of Eclipse herself."

"Eclipse cannot and will not kill him," Xhirxhti said, staring straight into her mother's eyes. "You know this. You know this better than I do."

"What about himself?" Arven said haughtily. "You cannot save him from himself. Imagine if he were to do the deed. There's no stopping that."

"Perry would never!" Xhirxhti shrieked. Pain started to throb in her heart. The words her mother was uttering were horrid. Even the very thought of her true love's death cut through her core and caused tears to leak out of the corners of her eyes. "He would never do that to me…"

"What is this?" Arven spat. "A Kyea royal dares to become lachrymose? The shame with which you continuously spite me is like venom to my soul!"

"And what of my soul?!" Xhirxhti sobbed. Her mother stiffened. "You treat me as a mere peasant, even though I am your daughter and royal heir! Do I mean nothing to you as your eldest child?"

"I do not love like you low creatures do!" Arven shouted back. "Love is weak! It blinds you to your duties and distracts you from the truth!"

"But it also gives you life and a reason to live!" Xhirxhti returned. Tears streamed from her now red eyes. Holding back was no longer an option. She would have her mother's side; she must. "Love gives me a purpose and a happiness that I cannot explain. It gives me reason to appreciate my husband and lover. Love protects my children from the hateful world around them. Without love, the body is dead- emotion is what defines us as living beings, mother!"

"You speak as a radical!" Arven hissed. She turned and walked off down a hall. Xhirxhti picked up the folds of her skirt and walked along briskly after her. "Why do you persist, Lexolav, you know that my mind will never be changed."

"Because I have hope that someday you will wake up to this nonsense and pay mind to your own grandchildren!" Xhirxhti told her. Arven stopped and turned back around to face her daughter.

"How dare you call those mix-breeds my grandchildren," Arven snarled.

"Those mix-breeds are my children and are your very flesh and blood!" Xhirxhti said harshly. She softened her expression and took a step towards her mother. "You once told me it was an honorable thing for a Kyea to have children, yet you ignore the thirty-five children I have."

"It would be honorable were they not also the children of a mortal being," Arven said quietly, her countenance darkening. She ran one pale hand down Xhirxhti's front and frowned. "It pains me to imagine that you had to carry them. You've defiled yourself. How can you not see this?"

"Defiled myself?!" Xhirxhti stepped back, offended at the remark. "I wanted children!"

"Could you not suffer a little longer and wait for a suitable match for yourself?" Arven questioned.

"I found a suitable match, thank you very much!" Xhirxhti said, jutting her chin out indignantly. She took a deep breath and stared deeply into her mother's emerald green eyes. "You have no right to say who's a suitable match for me and who's not."

"I beg your pardon?" Arven asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I said, mother, that you have no right to say who's a suitable match for me and who's not," Xhirxhti repeated. She licked her lips a little in thought. "Which means I can choose whomever I see fit to be with; I have already chosen that man."

"You call that Korobu-chisai-ontosel a man?!" Arven started. "Ha, he compares to a male Kyea as if he were a female."

"That is an unjust accusation," Xhirxhti winced. "You cannot say he is like a female, why, if anything he is the furthest thing from a female that I have ever met! Stop making assumptions. If you want to know what he is like, you would do right to meet him and get to know him."

"Get to know him?" Arven laughed. Her laugh was shrill and high-pitched. It sent involuntary chills down Xhirxhti's back. "I'd rather drink blood than talk to low scum such as he. Do remember, Lexolav, that I am a queen. I cannot talk to mortals and expect to maintain my purified image."

"Oh? Is that so?" Xhirxhti huffed. She crossed her arms and shifted her hips a little. "So you don't think that your subjects will accept you if you speak to a mortal creature?"

"Surely not," Arven shook her head. "No Kyea would ever admit that they wish to see the expression of equality. It is simply something that will never happen."

"And the saddest part of that, dear mother, is that I know better than you what the people think of your stance on equality," Xhirxhti said, trying to muffle her satisfied laughter. "You forget so easily that I once walked among the people and conversed with them as their equal. I spent many hours talking with them and getting to know them. They would celebrate if you pulled down Du Xaxzte mhn Pyrx! Away with the caste! You'll gain more support than you've ever had."

"What you speak is heresy to my courts!" Arven hissed. "Sacrilege! I should have your tongue cut out for even uttering such lies to me."

"Go on!" Xhirxhti challenged. "Cut out my tongue! It will never prevent me from expressing my mind and following my beliefs! You try so hard to change my mind and harden me towards my own husband and children, but it shall never happen!"

"Fine!" Arven exclaimed, her hair hanging low around her face in wild strands. "But from this day forward, you are never welcome in the courts of Arven, daughter of Izykaxyti, again. If your face is ever seen on the royal property- no, not even that, if you are ever seen on the very soil of Paix, then you shall be rewarded with your own death. You shall not plead your case to me, Lexolav, daughter of Arven; I have heard quite enough of it."

"But, mother, do you even realize the words coming from your mouth?" Xhirxhti asked, more tears spilling from her sorrow-filled eyes. "You are destroying your own family. Would you have said that to Legolas, my brother? Or would you have said it to my sister, Punyai?"

"If they were as foolish as you have been, I would," Arven said curtly. She turned her back on her daughter and slowly began to return to her throne. "Get away from my courts, Lexolav, and you dare not ever return to Paix as long as I am queen."

Xhirxhti whipped herself around and stormed out of the palace, her mood and her manner both as violent as a hurricane. It was one thing to be cast from a society by a complete and utter stranger, as she had been when she'd been placed under the Xee-Xee curse, but it was another thing entirely to have her mother shun her on the penalty of death. Was this how a Kyea viewed love? She couldn't bear the thought of such a treacherous view on that which she clung to so dearly. Still, she couldn't leave her family over this. She owed it to her husband and children to live with them and fight for them. For if not her, who would stand up for such a family of outcasts?

She continued on out of the palace until she was standing in front of it, staring out over the city of Paix. This was _Ailamos_. Good-bye to her own world forever.

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**Next Chapter is...Perry**

**Question: How are things looking for Xhirxhti about now?**

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	27. Mac Daddy

**I have been on a writing craze. Still, I have three days left of the beauty of Word. sigh So, from now on- writing happens on the same computer I use to update this with! (Which means fewer updates, but faster, in a sense). -AJ **

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Perry

Perry sat in the living area, watching his rambunctious children involve themselves in an intricately planned game of charades. It was obvious from the start that very few of them actually knew the true gameplay, as most of them were stating things that they were instead of just acting out the word or phrase they'd been appointed. He laughed a little, wondering where they'd learned the game. His first guess was Doof had taught it to them, but a second look at the situation had Revan's name written all over it. (That was easy to see once Perry noticed how most of the words or phrases used were something pertaining to Revan or his unique personality).

After a while of watching them play, his mind zoned off and took him to the inner depths of his subconscious. One could say that his 'id' was taking control at that very moment, as Semi was much more apt to be active when Perry wasn't on his guard. It is true that Semi was certainly no id of Perry's; nonetheless he acted very much so like one that it could be argued that Semi was the manifestation of Perry's id instead of a dual personality that battled for the same being's body.

This release of his mind into the darkness of his subconscious awakened dark thoughts- Semi's thoughts. Here, Perry was caught between the two sides of himself. It was the median on which his mind constantly tottered, trying to decide which mindset to fall towards. Semi tugged at it with an iron grip, always wanting to have control, and Perry struggled to pull back equally as forceful, if not more. Perry supposed that this was why he and Semi could see one another. Both were trying to obtain full control, but neither would give way enough so that the other could not be seen. This had been going on ever since Perry had first looked in the mirror and realized that he was, indeed, the assassin that many feared in their hearts.

It was here that he could see and know Semi's thoughts. He could look into the creature's personal mind and have a base knowledge of what it was going to try and do or what it was wanting to achieve. This never truly explained much of anything, though, as Semi's motives were a confusing, tangled knot of loyalty to Eclipse and a passion to destroy every living thing in sight. Whenever he tried to make internal contact with Semi, Perry always received the same response…

"Dad!"

Perry's eyes snapped open and he pulled himself back into the realm of the tangible. He turned his head to see Dillon staring at him. What was going on? He couldn't remember. Sitting forward some, he took a deep breath and smiled a little at his son.

"I'm sorry, I zoned off a little," Perry apologized. Dillon shook his head a little, almost as if he were tired of this happening. "What were you saying?"

"Dad, uh, when are we gonna order this Mac?" he asked, a sincere look on his face. Perry sighed. Dillon had been asking for a laptop for roughly a year so that he could 'begin a music career' or something like that, and the promise to him was that if he could raise enough money to buy one, he could do so. It didn't seem likely, though, that the boy had done so.

"You got the cash?" Perry raised his brow at him. Dillon turned a shade of red.

"I-I'm close," he said.

"That's what I thought," Perry chuckled. He stood up and started for the kitchen. Dillon would never learn that he couldn't have everything that he wanted. Perry stared out of the back window and laughed to himself. Yes, his children were a handful, but Dillon was one of the worst sometimes. Footsteps sounded behind him. The boy must have followed him in here. "Dillon, didn't I just tell you-"

"I want a Mac!" Dillon said, and suddenly his older brother Zexovani (Zen, for short) ran in and began to play a synthesizer.

"Okay, very funny kids," Perry frowned. "But we are not about to have a musical in the kitchen."

"I want a Mac, Daddy, I need a Mac!" Dillon continued. Perry slapped himself in the face. He quickly added. "So I can make my own beats."

"Dillon," Perry said firmly.

"I want a Mac; I want a Mac, Daddy, I need a Mac!" Dillon repeated.

"Them Apples don't grow on trees!" Perry insisted. He was about to tell the boy to stop complaining and raise the money if he wanted one so badly, but Dillon wouldn't have it.

"I want a Macintosh laptop, packaging so posh," Dillon kept going. "Fits like a glove in that tiny little white box, pretty as a picture- but it ain't all show! At eight RAM deep, I'll be running Logic Pro!"

"Are you _rapping_?" Perry blinked. "Why are you-?"

"To make my own beats, Dad!" Dillon persisted. "Keep me off the streets, Dad! An X-Box would even take a backseat, so please give me a job so I can stack that paper."

"Rock them beats!" Zen threw in.

"'Cause this is major!" Dillon grinned.

"You kids are hilarious," Perry huffed. "I'm not buying you a laptop."

"I want a Mac; I want a Mac, Daddy, I need a Mac!" Dillon said again. "So I can make my own beats."

"Dillon…" Perry tapped his foot. He started to say something again. "I said-"

"I want a Mac; I want a Mac, Daddy, I need a Mac!" Dillon smiled.

"-Them Apples don't grow on trees!" Perry finished.

"Yo, I'm saving for a laptop and lookin' for some work," Dillon raised his brow. Perry did the same and waited to see if this would be a legitimate suggestion. "Five bucks an hour, and I'm willin' to serve. Ain't no job to U-G-L to the Y; I'll do _almost_ anything to make that MacBook fly."

"Like?" Perry smirked. He was certain he had the boy there.

"Yo, I'd teach Judah to cross it over," Dillon suggested, miming the action. "I'll play chess all day with Moses. I'll take Leo to the Franklin Fair. Dad, I'd even braid Marlee's hair."

"You're joking…" Perry knit his eyebrows together in disbelief. Dillon shook his head no. "C'mon, man…"

"I want a Mac; I want a Mac, Daddy, I need a Mac!" Dillon said for a fifth time. "So I can make my own beats."

"And here we go again…" Perry sighed. He rubbed his temples a little.

"I want a Mac; I want a Mac, Daddy, I need a Mac!" Dillon insisted.

"Them Apples…don't grow…on trees," Perry laughed, figuring he could go ahead and play along with Dillon's little game by repeating himself as well.

"I want a Mac; I want a Mac, Daddy, I need a Mac!" Dillon repeated, somewhat encouraged by his father's repetition. "So I can make my own beats."

"No, you clearly don't," Perry chuckled.

"I want a Mac; I want a Mac, Daddy, I need a Mac!" Dillon said again.

"Them Apples don't grow on trees," Perry shook his head. "So you really want to earn a Mac?"

"Yes, sir," Dillon nodded.

"Ah, music for the people," Zen said, bouncing a little up and down as he did so.

"Yeah, we got that soul sauce!" Dillon grinned, punching his brother in the shoulder a little. They ran off to do something else, leaving Perry in the kitchen with a rather confused expression on his face.

"Soul sauce?" Perry mouthed. He didn't want to know. Shaking his head, he leaned up against the back door and looked out of its glass center. The coolness of April was casting a slightly dreary shadow over the backyard, but Perry was thankful for it. Darkness meant rain, and rain meant natural beauty as far as the eye could see. He smiled at the thought of flowers. Flowers made him think of Xhirxhti…his beautiful, perfect Xhirxhti…wherever she was.

"Oh, why, look who's all alone in the kitchen!"

Perry turned around to see Phineas rolling in the room in a wheelchair. After Ferb had found him (well, run him over with his tough little BMW), Phineas had been injured. It hadn't looked too bad until the doctor reported that his entire hip had been shattered and he'd need to have it replaced. He had been placed in a surgery some four weeks ago. The surgery had gone well, but Phineas was still unable to walk on it for another two weeks.

"You know, I remember you from the first time you were confined to one of those," Perry remarked. "You used to tell Isabella that you'd never walk again."

"Well, I was wrong then," Phineas chuckled. "I would have said the same before they replaced my hip, but who knows? I think I'll be on my feet in no time."

"A hint of optimism at long last!" Perry exclaimed. "I knew Phineas Flynn was somewhere hidden beneath that thick Mytax robe. He just had to get hit by a car to be freed, that was all."

"Oh, hush!" Phineas laughed. He rolled over beside Perry and looked out of the window as well. "What's bothering you?"

"I just want to be with Xhirx right now," Perry sighed. "I suppose she's still talking to her mother up in Amoyx. I just wish she wasn't so far away right now. I wish she was right here in my arms."

"How do you do it?" Phineas shook his head.

"Do what?" Perry blinked, looking up at the man.

"Everything you two have ever been through," Phineas breathed. "Even this most recent issue…and you still love each other more than you love anything else. So many people would die for that kind of love, you know? But you just have it. It's like loving her is naturally part of you."

"Isn't that how it should be?" Perry questioned. "It seems natural because it _is_ natural. She's my soul mate. We're bonded; mentally and physically. I don't understand some human things, but I understand love more than anything else."

"But is it _natural_- the love you two share?" Phineas furthered.

"Maybe not to anyone else," Perry shrugged. "But it is to me."

* * *

**Next Chapter is...Phineas**

**Question: What of Dillon's rapping? (It's unoriginal, yes- Google 'Mac Daddy: Tru's Reality' or something like it and you can watch the actual song on Youtube or something like that). **

**Check out all of the other stories, we'd love to hear from you!**


	28. Dani's Homecoming

**I wrote this during 'Directed Study' or as I like to call it- do whatever you like as long as your teacher doesn't yell at you. -AJ **

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Phineas

After the accident, Phineas once again, as has already been noted, was confined to a wheelchair. It was a funny thing to admit to the doctor that he'd used one for a good long while when he was six and knew how to 'operate and maneuver' a wheelchair from experience. He complained a little about having to return to one, but with enough persistence from Ferb and Isabella (as Perry was never any help on such matters), he gave in and kept his mouth shut about it. The lesser amount of complaining, he did have to admit, made the six weeks after his surgery go by faster, and soon enough he was out of the chair and onto crutches. That certainly made the second week of May brighter.

Phineas made his way to the Invinci bus stop with Ferb. This year, due to some tensions in Gonarede directly connected to the infamous Shujinko rebel Benjimi, the Invinci students were being sent home early. As promised, Phineas and Ferb would monitor Perry's school-age kids from the bus stop to the house, as the platypus had been called in late the previous night for some work with Monogram and was currently snoring louder than a chainsaw blade. Also, Phineas' oldest child, Danielle (more commonly known as Dani), who was coming back from her first year at Invinci, would be with them. She didn't know that he'd been 'found,' as everyone kept calling his reappearance, and he wanted to see her as soon as she got off the bus.

"Well, here we are," Ferb breathed. "The Danville Invinci drop-off."

"Remember when we used to board the bus here?" Phineas smiled. Ferb nodded and chuckled a little. "I remember getting off on our very first Christmas Break. All of us ran for the house as fast as we could…save Perry and Xhirxhti. That was some break."

"Yes, I remember it well, too," Ferb laughed. "I remember we all talked about your first date with Isabella, your first kiss, and, oddly enough, finding out that Xhirxhti was not only a Kyea, but also pregnant."

"Now, that's no news to hear that she's pregnant," Phineas smirked a little. "Her and Perry are always having kids…"

"Well, so far they've stopped at thirty-five," Ferb shrugged. "Maybe, just maybe, they're done."

"One can only hope," Phineas shook his head.

"Ah, I see _someone_ is tired of more Hidari showing up every nine months in his household," Ferb joked. Phineas jabbed at his brother's leg with one of his crutches playfully. "Hey!"

"Hey, you try feeding all of them every day," Phineas raised his eyebrows. "It gets expensive, especially when most of them are either growing still or, in Jamie's case, pregnant. Granted, I've noticed that she hasn't been eating anything as of late."

"That can't be good," Ferb hummed. "There were speculations about her baby being another Lesser Vampri, but this certainly confirms it. I'm surprised we're just realizing it now. Of course, we first noticed the signs three months ago."

"She stopped eating when she was four months in?" Phineas blinked. "How is she still alive?"

"She's probably feeding off of blood of some type," Ferb suggested. He had no time to say anything more, as a squeal was heard above them. Phineas cast his eyes skyward. "Ah, looks like the bus is about to touch down."

"That was always the scariest part about Gonarish buses," Phineas chuckled. He readjusted his crutches a little and tried to wear down his impatience to see his four-year-old daughter again. "I've _never_ been scared of heights, but being lifted off of a track several miles in the air and being placed down below on the ground- man, it always sent chills down my spine!"

"Oh?" Ferb remarked. He poked Phineas in the ribcage a little, causing him to jump up slightly.

"Not funny!" Phineas yelped. He quickly regained his balance and glanced upwards. It wasn't really going to do him any good, though, as the bus was always cloaked before it touched down. Gonarish people didn't want to risk the humans, or, as they said, the Mortals, discovering them. The hydraulics could be heard as the bus was lowered in front of them, but other than that, it made not a sound. It wasn't until the sound stopped that Phineas knew the cloaking device was deactivating. The long, white bus appeared in front of them; it was as sleek and smooth as they had remembered it.

"That sight never gets old," Ferb whistled. "I know buses down _here_ aren't that pretty, but MX buses- they make Mustangs and Jaguars jealous."

"What?" Phineas laughed. He cast a curious look at Ferb, but soon fixated his eyes on the bus door. In the back of his mind, he wondered what his baby girl would do when she saw him standing there. He shifted a little.

"Someone's awfully impatient," Ferb smiled.

"You won't understand until you have a kid," Phineas sighed. "And don't rush things. I love Dani, but I wish she wouldn't have come so soon. I was a father at nineteen…"

"Well, I'm sure I won't be rushing anything like that," Ferb shook his head. Phineas gave his stepbrother a blank look. "You're just so eager sometimes, you know…"

"No, no I don't," Phineas frowned, not understanding what his brother could have possibly meant by that. The door to the bus slid open, and a flood of children began to run off of the bus. Several of Perry's kids got off and started high-fiving Ferb. Many of them became over-excited upon seeing Phineas. The best reaction, though, was when Dani stepped into the doorway and looked out. Her eyes met Phineas' and a huge smile spread across her tiny face. She sprinted down the stairs and ran over to him, her arms spread out wide.

"Daddy! Daddy!" she exclaimed. Phineas dropped his crutches and knelt down to her. She ran straight into his arms and wrapped her own around his neck. Happy to at long last have his baby girl in his arms, Phineas couldn't help but shed tears of joy. "Daddy, they found you!"

"Yes, baby, they found me," Phineas said, choking on his own emotion. He stroked her silky black hair and held onto her tightly. Her tiny fists clenched his t-shirt inside of them. He kissed the top of her head and refused to let go. Now he remembered why life was so precious. It wasn't only because he had a family; it was because he had loved ones that felt protected and loved because of him. "And I promise I'll never leave again."

Ferb looked down at the hugging father and daughter and felt as if his heart would melt away. Yes, some day he wished he could have that, too. He could picture greeting his future child at the bus stop. Still, in all of his thoughts towards this picture he was now looking down at, he couldn't even fathom what the two were feeling.

"Mama knew you would come home," Dani said quietly. "She told Devin and me that every day. She said you'd come home and meet baby Jacob. She knew you would, Daddy, she knew!"

"Did you know?" Phineas asked her, opening his eyes a little. She fell silent for a second, thinking of her answer. "Did you know I would come home?"

"Yes, Daddy," she nodded. "You would never be gone from us forever."

Phineas nearly choked at her words. He was glad to have made the right choice. If he would have carried out his intentions of staying away from everyone for the rest of his life, he would have broken Dani's very impression of what a father should be. That very moment, he made a vow to himself that he would never desert his family again. The thought that he'd been so selfish burned on his heart like an iron branding. Again, he kissed her on the head and pressed her gently to him.

"I love you, Danielle," he whispered in her ear. "Don't you ever forget that, now. I love you with all of my heart."

"I love you, too, Daddy," she said back. "Don't you ever forget it."

A smile spread across Phineas' face. She may not have completely understood what she'd said, but those words warmed his heart. Ferb tugged at his shoulder to indicate that they had to go, so Phineas slowly picked up one of his crutches and pulled himself back up to his one foot. He continued to hold Dani in his left arm as they walked home; he didn't want to set her down or let her go.

"Are you going to need some help, bro?" Ferb asked. Phineas shook his head and kept walking. "You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm positive," Phineas insisted. He nodded his head at the crowd of platypuses that were talking, laughing, and running down the sidewalk. "I think you should be more worried about them. You wouldn't want them hitting cars."

"Don't you mean that I don't want them getting hit by cars?" Ferb frowned.

"No, no," Phineas shook his head. "I meant what I said."

"Oh," Ferb blinked. He walked ahead and kept an eye out for Perry's innumerable children. As for Phineas and Dani, they were left behind a little to be with each other.

"I'm tired, Daddy," Dani yawned. She snuggled up to his neck and shifted her body a little. Phineas patted her back and smiled.

"We're almost home, baby, just a few more minutes," he whispered. She nodded her head slowly and yawned a second time. Phineas chuckled to himself and did his best to hurry home. It was difficult for him to move quickly, as he was hopping on one foot and using a crutch for his other foot, but he did his best to make good time. Only a matter of minutes passed before Dani had fallen asleep on him, snoring gently, yet contently.

When Phineas arrived home, he walked inside and made his way into Dani's bedroom. He sat down on her bed and laid her down gently. She didn't wake up immediately; it wasn't until he'd pulled her backpack off and brushed her hair away from her face that her eyes flitted open.

"Hey, Daddy," she smiled sleepily.

"Hey, precious," Phineas said, returning her smile. "Go on; go back to sleep. I promise I'll be here when you wake up."

"Okay," she nodded. She fell back asleep with a content smile on her face.

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**Next Chapter is...Ferb**

**Question: Was that cute? (Oh, P.S.- if you're lucky, I'll have another chapter up tonight.)**

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	29. I Don't

**Told you I'd get one out soon! Hehehehe! (Sheesh, my spacebar stopped working for a second there...) -AJ **

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Ferb

It was decided that since everyone had come home early from school that Ferb and Gretchen's wedding date would be moved to the following week. Of course, that wasn't the only factor, but Ferb wasn't about to tell anyone that he and Lyla had expressed any sort of romantic interest one way or the other. If he could get married sooner, perhaps he'd forget Lyla and be able to focus more on his fiancé. Still, he had a funny feeling in the pit of his chest whenever he heard her name…

Ferb shook his head and was tempted to splash himself in the face with water. It was pre-wedding jitters, that was all. He leaned over the sink in the bathroom and took a deep breath. In that moment, he diverted himself by examining the details around him. The sinks were all embedded in dark granite, and the pristine faucets were a brushed steel. A glass vase full of fake white lilies sat in between each set of sinks, but none sat on the ends. On the floor, the tiles were ebony with ivory-colored grout solidified between each one. They sat in a perfect grid, stretching from the closed door all the way over to the farthest stall. As for the walls, they were painted a light mauve color and were lined with white molding. The stalls were black, and white light poured down from fluorescent, rectangular lights in the ceiling. He had to admit; it was a nice bathroom for a small church.

Satisfied with his diversion, Ferb turned one of the handles on the faucet of the sink he was stooping over and ran cold water over the fingers of his right hand. He scooped up a handful of it and splashed it into his face. The coolness of the water took some of the nervous heat from his cheeks. Glancing up into the mirror, he looked at his own blank expression and asked himself if he was making the right choice; he wondered if he was truly marrying who he loved. Shaking the water from his hand, he quickly reminded himself that it couldn't be _love_ he felt for Lyla- not after one measly kiss. He reached up and turned the water off. As he turned to his left, he saw Phineas toss him a towel.

"Someone looks nervous," he chuckled. Ferb shook his head and wiped his face and hands off with the towel. Phineas made his way over to the sinks on his crutches and took a glance at himself in the mirror. "It sure has been a long time since I've worn this tux."

"I think it looks rather handsome on you," Ferb remarked. He wasn't wrong; it was a black tuxedo with a white shirt underneath of it. Around his neck was a red bowtie. It was the same outfit that Ferb was wearing, save for the golden band around Phineas' left ring finger.

"Thanks," Phineas smiled. He readjusted his bowtie a little and looked back to Ferb. "You sure you're okay?"

"Oh, I don't know," Ferb sighed. He turned around and leaned back against the counter. Phineas tilted his head a little, indicating he wanted more than that for an explanation. Usually, his stepbrother could read anything Ferb was feeling or thinking, but today was different. "Have you ever felt like you were doing something you wanted to do, but then realized that you didn't know if you wanted to do it at all?"

"You can't possibly mean that you're second-guessing marrying Gretchen, can you?" Phineas blinked. Ferb sighed.

"We've just been so distant since you left," he replied. "We don't connect on a personal level anymore, and we barely discussed anything about this wedding. Plus…I feel like…I'm in love with someone else…"

Phineas raised his eyebrows. Ferb knew it had been a dangerous thing to say, but it was, in essence, the truth. No matter what he did, his mind always trailed back to Lyla. It wasn't something he could explain, though. He wasn't sure why she kept popping up in his thoughts. Was it her beautiful smile? Her perfect sense of emotion? Perhaps even the way she never seemed to find a single thing wrong with him, or he in her? No, Ferb couldn't decide what he saw as the reason for loving her.

"I shouldn't have said that…" Ferb breathed. He turned around and faced the back wall of the bathroom. The notable clink of crutches against tile sounded behind him, and he soon felt Phineas' hand light on his right shoulder. Ferb drew in his breath and waited for his brother's response.

"Are you sure?" Phineas questioned. Without another word, Ferb dipped his head down a little in a slight nod. He heard Phineas let out his breath slowly. "Is it someone I know?"

"Not personally," Ferb said, taking his breaths long and slow now. "You've met her on a few occasions. For example, she was with me the night I ran over you…"

"Ah," Phineas said. Both brothers fell silent.

"What do I do?" Ferb asked quietly. Phineas didn't respond. Unsure of whether it was disapproval or uncertainty, Ferb turned around to face his brother. "What would you do, if you were me?"

"Well," Phineas started. He swallowed a little and ran his left index finger along the inside of his collar. "If I was you, and I were in this situation, I would…I would do whatever my heart told me to do."

"Really?" Ferb remarked. Phineas nodded a little.

"Yeah," he said, readjusting his crutches and turning towards the door. Phineas started out of the bathroom, but paused a moment in the threshold. "Yeah, that's what I would do, Ferb. I'd follow my heart."

With those final words, Phineas left Ferb alone in the restroom. Ferb thought about what his brother had said. He didn't want to hurt Gretchen's feelings, but his heart called for him to love Lyla instead. Oh, what a decision was set before him now! He took a deep breath and briskly walked out of the bathroom. If anything, he could do something before the wedding started. He navigated his way through the back of the church and located Gretchen as quickly as possible. Before she could even ask what was going on, he pulled her into a janitorial closet so that they could be alone.

"I want you to be completely honest with me," Ferb said, looking her straight in the eyes. "Do you still want to do this?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, her voice sounding a bit appalled by the question he'd posed.

"Gretchen, we barely have talked in the past few weeks," Ferb said softly. "Trust me; if you don't want to go through with this, I'll be fine. Just speak your mind."

"You want me to be completely honest?" Gretchen swallowed. Ferb nodded his head vigorously. She chewed on her lip a little and looked down. "I don't feel like we love each other like we said we did when we first decided to get married."

"Would you prefer to call the whole thing off?" Ferb asked, not in the least offended by her admittance. She brought her eyes up to meet his again and nodded her head a little. "Well, then, I respect your honesty. If you will inform everyone of this, please, there's something I have to do in the wake of this decision."

Having said that, Ferb quickly left the closet, sprinted down the hallway, and made for his car. At this very moment, Lyla was intending to board a plane back to Canada, for, as she had told him a few nights ago, 'there was nothing left for her in the United States.' He slid into the driver's seat, jammed the key into the ignition, started the car, shoved the gear shift into drive and sped off down the highway. One thing was on his mind, and one thing only; he had to stop Lyla from boarding that plane so that he could tell her how he felt about her.

The drive to the airport was traffic-less, but it still pressed Ferb's nerves. He was going at least fifteen over the speed limit, and yet he still felt as if he were going too slow for his liking. His driving proved reckless in his frenzy, and he had no true excuse for being a reckless driver. No policeman would take, 'I'm trying to stop my true love from making a mistake and leaving me forever,' as a viable excuse for speeding and driving like a madman. He kept a close eye out for cops, although he was less concerned about a speeding ticket than he was about Lyla's possible departure from the U.S. in a little while.

Once he arrived at the airport, he practically leapt out of his car and ran for the building. He ran past guards, metal detectors, and even a few military officials as he ran along, searching for Lyla. His eyes skimmed the departures sign above his head as he ran about the airport. Her terminal was near; his heart gave an involuntary leap for joy. Still, he had to make it to her before she boarded. His pace quickened and he made a beeline for the terminal gate.

It was about fifteen yards in front of him when he saw her. She was carrying a lone suitcase in her right hand, and she was walking slowly towards her terminal. Ferb ran even faster now, determined to catch her attention and stop her. When he realized that he'd never reach her in time, he did something he'd never expected himself to do.

"Lyla!" he shouted. It was a strange thing, to be loud. She stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around. "Lyla, wait!"

"Ferb?!" she exclaimed. She waited for him to run over to her and let him catch his breath before she said anything else. After he had caught his breath and was standing straight up again, she made her move. "What on Earth are you doing here? Aren't you, ya know, supposed to be at a wedding? _Your_ wedding?"

"Ah, yes," Ferb nodded. "About that."

"What?" Lyla blinked.

"The wedding's been canceled," Ferb told her. She stood back a little, shocked by this. "We decided we couldn't marry one another if we didn't love one another. And, I have to admit, I'm in love with someone else."

"Oh?" Lyla frowned. She seemed almost perturbed by the comment, but Ferb knew this was because he wasn't stating obviously that it was her he loved. He stepped a little closer to her and took a deep breath.

"Well, a few months ago, I met a very pretty girl," he said slowly. "We met on a plane. Our seats were side by side. We traveled together a little, and, well, I didn't know how much I loved being around her and seeing her beautiful face until…until she kissed me one night…"

"You can't possibly mean…?" Lyla gasped. She looked as if her feelings were a mixture of happiness and confusion.

"Yes, yes I do mean it, Lyla," Ferb said quickly. He took her hands in his and pulled her closer to him. "I love you."

"I-I love you, too," she stammered. Ferb brought her in even closer and smiled at her a little. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again, clearly unashamed to let loose again. This time, though, Ferb didn't pull back; he didn't tell her not to kiss him. He simply let her do so.

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**Next Chapter is...Jamie**

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	30. A Reflection of Who He Is

**Yes, I have another update for you! School computer's gone, so it's taking forever. So terribly sorry about this. -AJ **

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Perry

Perry stood in front of the mirror and stared straight into his own eyes. Well, he actually was staring into the blood-red irises of Semi. The double personality wasn't saying anything at the moment, but he was certainly awake. How did Perry know that? He could always feel when Semi was awake. It felt like his senses were heightened; two entities were struggling over the same nervous system. Both could see, hear, and feel at the same time. That, and there was always a strange feeling of pressure at the base of his skull where the brain connected to the spinal cord. It was an unnerving thing to feel, in Perry's mind.

"Why do you just stand there?" Perry whispered to the image. It still sent shivers down his spine when his reflection refused to mimic his actions. Semi blinked, but Perry did not. When he'd uttered the words, Semi's mouth had remained shut. It was in times like this that Perry questioned his own sanity.

The image in the mirror stood as still as a statue. Perry watched the slow rise and fall of his chest, knowing good and well that this was the only motion he and Semi shared consistently in the reflection. Semi took a few steps forward and stood still again. There was no telling what the assassin was thinking; there was simply just the anticipation of wondering what would happen next. A smile curled up at the edges of Semi's bill. He started to laugh a little bit. Perry tensed up at the sound of his own voice, slurred as it was when Semi spoke.

"Why do you toy with me?" Perry said through gritted teeth. "Are you real or are you a figment of my imagination?"

His reflection only smirked back at him. Perry could feel the confusion and the frustration bubbling up inside of his chest, screaming at him to force an answer out of this image he was staring so intensely at. He thrust his hands against the wall beside the mirror and continued to stare into his reflection. His breathing picked up, and he could feel the rush of air flowing between the gaps in his teeth.

"DON'T JUST STAND THERE, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, SEMI, ANSWER ME!" Perry screamed. He threw his fists back down to his sides and tried to calm himself. Semi snickered a little.

"Do I torture you?" Semi asked, his mouth curling up at the edges in mockery. "Doess it bother you that I remain ssilent?"

"You drive me mad," Perry spat to the side, trying to rid his mouth of the bile that had formed there from his anxiety. "You make me sick. I wish to get rid of you, but I know good and well that our lives are connected."

"Ha, you think that," Semi smirked.

"I know that," Perry replied dryly. "You cannot exist outside of this body, nor can I. Thus, if one dies, so does the other."

"You assume too much, Perry Flynn," Semi chuckled. He pulled one of his revolvers out of its holster and ran one finger along the rim of the smooth, perfect hole at the end of the holster. A little black smudged onto his hand; Perry wanted to assume it was something similar to gunpowder, but he wasn't thinking properly enough to dig into his vast knowledge of weaponry to consider it at the moment. "I will make you a promisse."

"Oh?" Perry raised his brow sarcastically. "What sort of promise can a criminal keep with a government agent?"

"One I intend to to keep," Semi said honestly. He pulled out of his vest a long, silvery dagger. Its handle was ebony with scarlet teardrops running down its length. "Thiss iss a mosst sspecial weapon. It wass given to me by Lady Eclipsse hersself. I, Ssemi X, promisse you, Perry Flynn, that I will kill you with thiss very weapon."

"You're _hilarious_," Perry rolled his eyes. "You can promise all you like; I'll do anything in my power to keep from dying by _your_ hands."

"Ssometimess you are a great fool," Semi laughed. He placed his gun bcd into its holster and began to twirl the dagger around in his fingers, the blade on his left index finger and the farthest tip of the handle on his right. "You know nothing about our connection."

"I discovered it first, remember?" Perry reminded his counterpart. "To say that you know more about this than I do is a big, fat lie."

"But we both know that I know more about dark thingss, ssuch as the magic of the High Vampri," Semi responded coolly. He laughed in such a manner that made Perry's stomach turn. "My existence is due to such dark magic."

"Hej," Perry told the assassin. "You mistake Pure Hej for magic. Magic is a vile thing used by Eclipse's lowly witches and warlocks."

"Poor, poor Perry Flynn," Semi mocked, adjusting his voice to fit a higher-pitched tone. "He knowss nothing of the power of the Higher Vampri. Yess, yess it iss true that they have Pure Hej; everyone knowss thiss. However, there are very few that know of the black magic High Vampri usse."

"I don't believe you," Perry said, turning his back on the reflection.

"You don't have to," Semi chuckled evilly. "Nobody has to believe it for it to be true."

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**Next Chapter is...Phineas**

**Question: I'm SO running out of questions...do y'all have any for me?**

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	31. The Image of Agony

**So, have ya'll disappeared? I'm figuring I've ticked you all off here... -AJ **

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Phineas

Phineas stared intently at the ceiling as he lay in bed that night. It was true that he had been sleeping much better since he'd returned to Danville, but tonight he was having trouble getting back to sleep after a nightmare tonight. This one had been about him being stuck in a black, empty vacuum, destined to never move, hear, or see again. He wondered if that was true about his emotional state sometimes.

The room was cool, but Isabella's presence in the bed beside him warmed him up, even if she herself was the temperature of arctic ice. He turned onto his side and pulled her limp, sleeping body close to his. She moaned a little in her slumber, but didn't awaken. Phineas smiled, happy to know that he hadn't disturbed her. He took his left thumb and stroked it across her forehead, pulling hairs away from her face. His breath almost stopped when he looked at her serene face; oh, what beauty he saw in her silky black hair, her perfectly shaped nose, and her creamy skin color. Seeing her face reminded him why he came back.

She moved a little, indicating that she'd woken up. A smile spread across Phineas' lips. Isabella's eyes flitted open and she turned her head a little to look at him. She laughed a little and smiled gently back at him. For a short moment, they both sat there, staring at one another happily. Phineas leaned over and planted a small kiss on her cheek.

"Morning, beautiful," he greeted. Isabella laughed quietly as her eyes slowly rolled around to look at the alarm clock sitting on their nightstand.

"It's one o'clock," she giggled.

"That still counts as morning," Phineas whispered back. She giggled a little more and rolled onto her back. "I see your point, though- it _is_ a tad early to get up, especially on a Saturday."

"Mm, no kidding," she mumbled, snuggling up into his bare chest. "As always, you're nice and warm."

"I get that a lot," Phineas chuckled.

"Having fire-related Hej does have its perks, baby," Isabella said sleepily. She pressed her hands up to his skin and wrapped her fingers around his shoulder blades, slowly moving her hands up to his neck.

"Oh?" he asked, raising one eyebrow jokingly.

"Yes, yes it does," she nodded. She pulled herself closer to his body and nestled her head in the cavity between his chin and his left shoulder. Phineas rested his head on top of hers and closed his eyes.

"I love you," he whispered into her ear.

"I love you, too," she said back, her voice barely audible.

It only took a few more minutes before Isabella was once again snoring by his side. Phineas marveled at her ability to nod off in a few seconds. Perhaps it was the duties of being a mother. He couldn't understand either way. Adjusting his pillow a little, he made himself comfortable beside her and did his best to fall asleep. He had almost achieved it when he heard an ear-splitting scream a few rooms over.

Phineas shot up in his bed. There was only one name he could identify with screaming in his house, and that was Jamie. There was never any cause for anyone else to scream; save for Isabella the first time she'd gone into labor. He removed himself from bed as gently as he could, so as not to wake Isabella again, and he hurried down the hallway to see what was the matter. Grabbing ahold of the door handle, Phineas swung open her door and poked his head inside. She was sitting forward in the bed clutching her stomach with one hand.

"Matthew, is she alright?" Phineas asked, nodding slightly to Jamie.

"I think she's going into labor," Matthew replied quietly. Perry appeared just below Phineas and waited for the explanation to finish. "Her water hasn't broken, but she's in a lot of pain."

"Has she ever actually had a natural birth before?" Phineas frowned.

"No," Perry shook his head. He walked over to Matthew's side and gave Jamie a sympathetic look. "This is new to her. The farthest she's ever gotten before she's had a C-Section was with the twins; her water broke and then she passed out a couple minutes later."

"Is her body going to go into shock, then?" Phineas questioned, chewing on his lip a little bit. Both Perry and Matthew stiffened at the suggestion.

"Hadn't thought of that…" Perry muttered. Jamie looked up at Matthew with a pained expression on her face. She let out a slight yelp. "Yeah, I certainly hadn't thought of that at all."

"Do you want me to wake Isabella?" Phineas said, scratching the back of his head nervously. Perry shook his head and pointed behind Phineas. When he turned to see what he was pointing at, he found Xhirxhti standing beside his leg with a pitiful look on her face. Without saying a word, he gently pushed Xhirxhti into the room and shut the door tightly.

"What was that for, émot?" Xhirxhti said curtly, casting a wary eye at Phineas. "I did nothing to you."

"That wasn't intended to be a rude movement," Phineas shot back. "I don't want her to wake everyone, so I closed the door."

"I'll excuse it _this_ time," Xhirxhti hissed, more so out of annoyance than to insult. She gave Jamie a quick side glance and sighed. "But that's only because you were looking out for your family."

Jamie interrupted their exchange of hard words with mournful wail. She clutched the sheets beside her in her fists until her knuckles went white. Tears of pain streamed down her cheeks and rolled onto the pillow she'd been lying against. Everyone in the room turned their head to see if something would happen. Matthew reached for one of her hands and grasped it tightly.

"It's okay, baby, calm down," he whispered to her softly.

She didn't calm down, though. Jamie's crying was definitely unsettling for Phineas; he couldn't imagine how unbearable it was for the seemingly stoic Perry. He quietly admired the platypus for not breaking down into sobs at that very moment.

The minutes passed like hours. In fact, the only one in the room who actually did know what time it was was Perry, who was silently keeping a time watch for some reason. Phineas figured that he might be timing the space between each contraction she had, but there was no telling. After a considerable amount of time, which was later told to them by Perry to have been two hours and ten minutes, Xhirxhti quickly left the room to find a wet cloth and hurried back in to place it on Jamie's forehead. She winced when she touched her daughter's skin.

"She's so hot…" she murmured. Jamie nodded a little, unwilling to say nothing through her clenched teeth. Xhirxhti closed her eyes and muttered something in Kyeaclae. "We're going to be here a while."

"What makes you say that?" Perry asked her, his voice cracking a little. Phineas could tell that Jamie's pain was killing him inside.

"I just have the feeling that we'll be here for a long amount of time," she sighed, dabbing the cold cloth on Jamie's temples. The girl shut her eyes tightly and shrieked in pain again, this time sitting straight up and leaning forward over her bulging stomach. A panicked Matthew took ahold of her left elbow and looked at her pain-stricken face.

"Baby, you okay?" he questioned, his voice wavering. Her breathing pace picked up a little and she shook her head no. She placed her right hand on top of her belly and tried to calm herself. Matthew looked at her swollen stomach for a moment, and then returned his gaze to her face. It only took him a moment to jerk his head back towards her abdomen. "Dad…she's _bleeding_. Is that…normal?"

"Um…" Perry said. He looked at Xhirxhti for a moment and frowned. "That depends, I guess…are you sure that, especially in this dark, it wasn't her water breaking?"

"I know blood when I see it," Matthew retorted. He turned to Jamie. "Did you feel your water break at all?"

She shook her head vigorously. No.

"Perry, have you considered the fact that it might not be her that's bleeding?" Xhirxhti said, trying not to give away the horror in her voice. On hearing this, Jamie screamed in agony. Xhirxhti seemed to instantly regret having said what she had. She'd only put her daughter in a state of panic for the baby. Jamie grabbed her mother by the wrists and cried, in between choking sobs, for her to save the baby.

"Jamie, everything's fine," Matthew reassured her, stroking her back. "We're not even sure who's bleeding, it might just be you."

Those words didn't sound completely comforting to Phineas, but he supposed that to a mother who was terrified she'd lose a child, it was comfort enough. He shook his head as Jamie calmed down a bit, marveling at the bond created between mother and child, even before birth.

"That's right, the baby's gonna be fine," Matthew said, shoving all of his fears, and jealous thoughts, down his throat in an effort to console his mate. Jamie let go of her mother and leaned back again, propping her back up against the wall just enough so that she could see everyone in the room, but still be stretched out enough so that her pregnant stomach wasn't cramped. She clutched the sheets beside her in her left hand and spread her righthand fingers across her belly; her breathing stayed at a quickened pace.

Something of a silence fell over the room. The only sound that could be heard was Jamie's heavy breathing. Everyone watched her carefully, wincing every time her breath was curt short, cringing when she let out a moan or a yelp, and jumping a little when her eyes snapped shut. She herself, when her eyes weren't closed, was watching the slow rise and fall of her own abdomen. What caught everyone off guard was when she stood up out of the bed and waddled over towards the bathroom, one hand wrapped under her stomach as if to hold it up.

"Jamie, what are you doing?" Matthew asked, hopping out of bed to follow her. She mumbled something inaudible. "I'm sorry, baby, I couldn't hear you."

Whatever her purpose for removing herself from the bed, she never did get to fulfill it. She suddenly dropped to her knees clutching her stomach in both hands. Jamie tried to suppress her own scream. Thrusting herself on the floor, she curled up into the best fetal position she could manage and continued to shriek.

"Jamie, what's wrong?!" Matthew exclaimed. He dropped down beside her and shook her arm a little bit.

"GET HIM OUT, GET HIM OUT!" she cried at the top of her lungs.

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**Next Chapter is...Ferb**

**Question: Is Jamie screwed? **

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	32. A False Sense of Hope

**Well, if you are here, I have another update for you. -AJ **

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Ferb

He wasn't quite sure why he'd woken up until he heard the phone ringing. Groaning, he rolled out of bed and stumbled over to the home phone sitting on its charger. Picking it up, Ferb pressed the green button on the left and pressed the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?" he asked groggily.

"Ferb!" Phineas' voice came over the phone. Ferb would have smiled, but he could hear the worry in his brother's voice. "Ferb, I know this is probably the worst time to call and ask this, but how much do you really know about Lesser Vampri birth?"

"Timing isn't so bad as you asking that," Ferb grunted. Phineas didn't reply to that. "Look, I know a little bit, but I'm no expert, okay? What do you need to know?"

"Well, about five hours ago, Jamie started having contractions," Phineas said calmly. "At about three she started bleeding; her water still hasn't broken, but she's curled up on the floor in the fetal position and hasn't stopped screaming or bleeding for three hours straight."

"That sounds…unpleasant," Ferb remarked. He could hear Phineas' huffed response, even if it was a sound he wasn't intended to hear. "Look, her bleeding can't be a good thing; it either means the baby's decided to bite her or she's losing the baby fast."

"Yeah, we feared it was the baby," Phineas said with a sigh. "Which is more likely?"

"The latter," Ferb licked his lips.

"Go figure…" Phineas moaned. He heard bits of garbled conversation; someone must have been nearby to relay the news to everyone else. "Xhirxhti said that Jamie's gone ballistic."

"By my reckoning, I doubt the baby's going to live," Ferb frowned, feeling a pang of guilt for having to tell his brother that. He could only imagine if Perry were on the phone. Phineas let out a breath. "Brother, please don't tell them that."

"Then what am I supposed to tell them?" Phineas asked, his voice cracking. "Perry's got two children at risk; I can't say that one of them's about to die."

"Yes, but Jamie, as we both know well, has the uncanny ability to avoid death, just like her lunatic of a father," Ferb chuckled morosely. "If you don't let her on that there's no hope, she won't try to help herself. At least let her hope she can have her baby."

"I guess you're right," Phineas said quietly. "Although I can't imagine anything much worse than her losing the baby happening right now."

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**Next Chapter is...Jamie**

**Question: Is this book just too depressing? **

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	33. Jamie's Persisting Pain

**This book is ending fast. And...I have a feeling my audience left seven or so chapters ago. -AJ **

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Jamie

The pain was unbearable. Jamie was suddenly thankful for having to have C-Sections performed on her first two pregnancies before she'd had to endure this much pain. Heck, her water hadn't even broken yet and she was on the floor, wishing that something existed to ease her pain. Her entire lower abdomen felt as if it were on fire. Someone touched something cold to her forehead; she assumed it was her mother. The hand on her shoulder was undoubtably Matthew's. The voices around her…was someone actually talking? She didn't know. Someone shook her right arm.

"Jamie! Jamie stay awake!" her dad shouted.

"I'm…I'm still here, Daddy," Jamie murmured. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks and fell onto the floor below her. She'd gotten up to get a drink of water, thinking that all of her contractions had just been a false alarm, and now she was repaid with more of them and a gut feeling that her baby was dying inside of her. Jamie felt, at that moment, like a grave.

"Do you feel anything?" he asked her, his voice sounding terrified and filled with self hatred. She could tell he felt guilty for the pain she was experiencing at that very moment. Jamie reached out shakily with one hand and wrapped her fingers around his.

"Other than pain?" Jamie smiled weakly, her voice cracking a little as she said it. Perry swallowed hard and looked down at her round belly. The baby inside of her seemed to jolt a little. She drew in a deep breath and held it for a moment. On letting it out, she released a cry of pain as she felt the baby's body seem to twist sideways. "I wish, Daddy. I wish he'd just come."

"I know, baby girl, I know," Perry said quietly. He lifted her hand to his cheek and pressed it up against his jaw tightly. Jamie sat forward and looked her father in the eyes, watching them fill up to the brim with salty tears. He shut his eyes and seemed to be forcing them shut.

"Daddy," Jamie said softly. His eyes slowly drew open, staring into hers with red forming on the white, near his heavy eyelids. She pressed her free hand to her overly impregnated abdomen and smiled gently. "There's always a reason."

"Jamie, look at you!" Perry cried. "I've caused your death!"

In that moment, Jamie felt her airways close inside of her throat. Air refused to enter her lungs; it also refused to escape them. His words were suffocating her. This wasn't the end, though. She would live- she would live to take care of her baby. There was no other option Jamie would accept. Sitting back a little, she sighed and glared down at her stomach.

It didn't take Jamie long to realize just what she was staring at. She'd known it ever since the day she'd first felt her stomach wrench with nausea roughly ten months ago. Her bulging belly had been stretched well past full term; she'd been waiting for the say when she could hide the fact that she was her own sibling's mother. Yet, here she was, too many days past the day she should have delivered the baby and feeling as if the next move she made would have her water breaking.

Still, that moment took forever to come. The hours dragged on, and Jamie was still lying in the bed, trying her best to ignore the frequent contractions that were throbbing against her underbelly. Sweat poured off of her body like a waterfall. They'd turned on the fan, brought her ice packs, and had even pulled her into a bathtub full of ice-cold water now in attempt to cool her down.

"This isn't working," Jamie moaned, waving her hand in front of her face like a fan. Everyone else let out an annoyed sigh. Matthew picked her up as gently as possible and returned her to their bed. He nuzzled her cheek with his bill.

"It's killing me to see you in such pain," he whispered.

"Now you know how I felt when…" Jamie trailed off, but only to instead groan at yet another contraction.

"When what?" Phineas asked, speaking up after a few hours of being silent. Instead of answering for his mate, Matthew subconsciously covered the left side of his neck and shook his head dismissively. "Matthew, what's wrong?"

"I have my suspicions," Perry grunted. He grabbed Matthew by the wrists and managed to pull his left hand away from his neck. Perry looked at the spot he'd been covering and sniffed a little in aggravation. "Just as I suspected. She bit him."

"Jamie, you what?!" Xhirxhti cried, her face gone pallid "I thought we'd agree to no blood-drinking?"

"I didn't drink his blood, Mother, I swear to you!" Jamie exclaimed, sitting forward as far as she could. She wrapped one arm around her belly and took a deep breath. "We should have told you, but that's all I _could_ drink for the past six months. One night, the craving was so bad that I went straight for his jugular."

"If she hadn't have come to her senses soon enough, I'd be dead," Matthew licked the edge of his bill nervously. "At the last minute, she decided to inject her venom into my bloodstream to save my life…"

"Oh!" Xhirxhti cried. She fainted on the spot, landing right onto a very surprised Phineas.

"I guess having two Lesser Vampri in the house is a tad unnerving for her, isn't it?" Phineas tried to joke. Neither Perry nor Matthew laughed. Jamie rolled her eyes and leaned her back against the wall. She rested one hand on her stomach and contorted her face.

"Soon to be three," she whispered. The others turned to look at her, frowning sympathetically. Jamie knew by this they hadn't read into what she'd said. Before she could explain, the baby writhed a little bit inside of her, causing her to scream. Her breathing picked back up.

"Jamie, what's wrong?!" Matthew asked, running to her side and cupping one hand in her cheek. She rubbed the top of her belly and murmured something about 'fast.' Matthew frowned. "Could you repeat that, baby?"

"My water broke!" she said, more forcefully than she'd intended. Tears of pain spilt over her cheeks. She again clenched fistfuls of sheets beside her. "He's coming fast…"

"Calm down, calm down, you're doing fine," Matthew reassured her. He stroked her forehead and offered her a hand. She grabbed it, but no less than ten seconds later he was regretting it; she'd squeezed his hand so hard that she'd most likely shattered every bone in his hand. Still, he let her hold onto it.

Giving birth, in Jamie's opinion, was something she wished she'd had to do before. The lack of familiarity was killing her. One time, she'd looked down, only to see that the pool of blood that had been flowing from her from the beginning of her labor was still going strong. Her fears were growing stronger that it was the baby who was bleeding, and not herself.

Jamie felt no concept of time through all of her pain and effort. All she really could judge about such was that everything went faster after the baby had crowned. She actually had sighed in relief when that was over. Her job seemed less difficult then. After that, she didn't complain once about pain while finishing up her delivery.

"Jamie," Perry said softly.

"Y-yes, D-daddy?" Jamie panted, trying to to calm herself down. He walked over to her side and carefully laid the newborn in Jamie's arms.

"You were wrong," he chuckled. "It's a girl."

"She's beautiful," Jamie breathed, holding her tiny daughter and sister close. It was a strange feeling, Jamie would later say, to look at her child and know that she was her sister, but she loved her anyways. She cradled the baby in her arms and smiled as she quietly gurgled a little. "Not even a cry from you…"

"What's her name?" Phineas smiled.

"Lexi," Jamie nodded, letting her baby wrap her tiny fingers around her left index finger. The newborn let out a satisfied squeak. Jamie did her best not to cry as she smiled down happily at her daughter.

It took a few moments of quiet congratulations and awkward moments of looking past Matthew before everyone had left the room save for Jamie and Perry. Matthew had promised him that he'd trust Perry enough with Jamie now, even if he still disliked the thought of it all. Jamie looked up at her father and swallowed.

"Would you like to hold her?" she asked, her voice barely audible, even in the silent room. Perry shook his head no. "You're sure?"

"I'm sure," Perry said, keeping his eyes locked on the baby that was slowly falling asleep. "After all, who am I to take away your joy?"

At this, Jamie smiled. She couldn't think of the horrid in that moment. How could she, when she was holding such a small, tender bit of joy and beauty in her arms as that very moment? Jamie stroked Lexi and kissed her now sleeping daughters forehead.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," Perry said hastily. Jamie looked up to him.

"Daddy," Jamie said, only having to put a little emphasis on his title to gain her a look straight into his eyes. "You're forgiven. Forget about the pain. She needs us both to be strong, even if she'll never know you're her father."

"Alright," Perry nodded. He turned on his heel and walked out of the room slowly, closing the door behind him without a sound.

Jamie held the baby to her chest and wrapped her tail around her protectively. She soon fell asleep alongside her newborn, oblivious to everything else going on around her. A little _too_ oblivious, sadly.

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**Next Chapter is...Perry**

**Question: Do we like that the baby managed to live?**

**Check out all of the other stories, we'd love to hear from you!**


	34. Semi's Resolution

**Well, I guess I'm posting this, then. -AJ **

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Perry

Perry quickly ran into his room. The tears overtook him before he reached it, though, and he was sobbing by the time he'd shut himself in. For hours, he'd just watched Jamie endure the pain that _he_, Perry Flynn, had been a fool and a jerk to inflict upon her. Every drop of blood, every cry of pain, and every bead of sweat cut him through.

He dropped to the floor and grabbed fistfuls of his own fur, trying to cope with his horrible actions ten months ago. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't understand Jamie's uncanny forgiveness. What he'd done was practically unforgivable, and she had looked him straight in the eye, while holding their child in her arms, and told him a second time that he was forgiven.

"Perry Flynn beatss himsself up to much," Semi's voice droned.

"What is your problem, you sick creature?" Perry wailed. He looked up to see Semi standing in front of him, holding the dagger from before. A look of horror passed over Perry's face. "You wouldn't!"

"I do believe I made a promisse, Perry Flynn," Semi said murderously. A grin spread across the assassin's face. "And a promisse is worth keeping, iss it not?"

"Not one like that!" Perry spat. "I have a family!"

"Guess your family hass a funeral to plan, then," Semi cackled. He lunged for Perry and tried to force the blade into his chest. Perry was quick enough to grab onto Semi's hands and hold them out in front of himself, only centimeters away from his beating heart. He could feel his own fear seeping through his skin.

"Semi, let go!" Perry said, raising his voice. "YOU'LL KILL US BOTH, YOU MORON!"

"I would gladly die for my Masster!" Semi returned. They twisted and turned on the floor, the whole while fighting over the blade. Semi tried his hardest to slice open Perry's chest or throat, while Perry struggled to keep the blade away from his bare chest.

"Your Master clearly doesn't respect you if she wants you to commit suicide!" Perry shot back, glaring into Semi's blood red eyes. It sickened him to think that they were actually his own he was staring into.

"Sshe only wantss you to look sselfissh," Semi snorted. "Did you think I wass that sstupid, Perry Flynn? You gave me the optionss! Every bad thing that hass happened to you, it makess your ssuicide a lot eassier to accept, now doessn't it?"

Perry froze on the spot. Semi was right- he'd been the idiot who'd confided his entirety of guilt, shame, and hurt. He'd practically set himself up for Semi's nasty tricks. Semi took the moment to wrench Perry's hands apart and pin them to the floor with his knees. A cruel grin spread across his face.

"Thiss will be ssatissfying," Semi snickered. "Tell the world goodbye, Perry Flynn."

Semi twisted the blade in his hands. Perry struggled to free himself. With a cry that sounding like nothing a living being could muster, Semi thrust the blade into the left side of Perry's chest. He shrieked as a banshee would and dissipated from Perry's view. Perry could barely hear his own cry of pain.

He stood up quickly and caught a glance of himself in the mirror. Semi was no longer string back at him. The assassin had found his resolution. All he could see was his now blood-soaked front. The edges of his mind went black. A door slammed open. Xhirxhti ran in and screamed. Perry held one shaky hand out to her and inhaled painfully.

"Semi…" he croaked.

Before she could respond, Perry felt his body go limp. He fell to the ground; everything seemed to be going slowly. Darkness closed in on Perry. The last thing he remembered was a voice, like that of an angel's, crying his name mournfully between choking sobs.

Then all was black.

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**End of Book Six. Book Seven, Timeshift, will be up soon enough. Thanks for reading. **


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